Stay off My Operating Table: A Heart Surgeon’s Metabolic Health Guide to Lose Weight, Prevent Disease, and Feel Your Best Every Day

by Philip Ovadia

Snacking really comes from the food industry. Two to three generations ago, they weren’t snacking, because snack foods weren’t available.

if you’re eating real whole food, you’ll crave desserts less.

Your dinner should be mostly protein so you won’t be hungry.

The only person responsible for your metabolic health is you.

keto and low-carb ice creams advertised in supermarkets and on social media are really no better than processed ice creams.

Sometimes “low-carb” substitutes are worse than what they are trying to substitute for.

Prepare your own food, make your own food, cook your own food.

Don’t just eat for the calories. Eat for nutrition and health.

stick to real whole food. Follow that simple rule, and you’ll do great.

When you eat at a restaurant, make sure you eat the real whole food before you eat processed food and carbs.

If you’re at a social gathering, find your whole-food options. Meat and cheese trays at events are good.

Eat a little at home before you go to the party so you’re not starving.

Focus on the experience, not the food. You won’t look back twenty years from now and remember the food you ate.

Your meal, snack, and beverage choices must align with your metabolism, not some fad.

The Standard American Diet (SAD, an appropriate acronym) is about as far from metabolic health as you can get.

We’ve been eating red meat for 99.99 percent of our species’ history.

Relying on religion for your metabolic health may be discordant.

If your priority is health, that might mean compromising on some of these religious, moral, or ethical principles.

the only pitfall of the carnivore diet is realizing you can survive on animal products alone.

fresh meat was actually a treatment for scurvy because of the bioavailable content of vitamin C.

vitamin C is present in fresh meat, but not preserved or processed meat.

the more carbohydrates you eat, the more vitamin C you need.

The evidence is clear that if you take someone who is metabolically unhealthy and limit their carbs, their metabolic health will improve.

You may lose weight because you’ve cut your carb intake but not see improvements to the five signs of metabolic health.

The Mediterranean diet tends to focus on leaner foods. That means it minimizes meat overall and red meat in particular,

which is not the case when you look at Mediterranean countries. They love meat and fat!

Our food industry even poisons us when we think we’re eating healthy. It’s

Gluten just appears to be bad for us.

(gelatin is basically cow bone ashes),

Then there’s the point-blank fact that supplements are mandatory. Many nutrients do not exist in easy-to-find-and-prepare vegan foods from the grocery store.

“Nobody binge eats steak.”

Metabolic health refers to the body’s ability to properly use food for fuel, growth, and repair, and to store energy for periods of lower food availability.

Loss of metabolic health leads to many chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, heart disease, fatty liver disease, gallstones, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), obstructive sleep apnea, gout, and more.

Markers of metabolic health include waist circumference, blood pressure, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and fasting glucose.

The primary goal of exercise should be to build and maintain muscle.

muscle is more metabolically active, more muscle keeps you healthier.

being more active throughout the day is more effective than isolated bursts of exercise amid ...

find ways to build more activity into your daily life.

I’ll give you five changes you can start right now that will get you rolling with the biggest payoff:

Eat real whole food

Eliminate processed fats (vegetab...

Minimize added sugars and pro...

Get adequate amounts of qu...

Move...

to use four specific tracking methods.

The first two metrics are waist circumference and body fat percentage.

some people can look healthy on the outside but have metabolic problems on the inside.

Third, to dive deeper into real metabolic health, get some blood work done.

Specifically your insulin level, fasting glucose level, and a cholesterol panel (checking your low-t...

Finally, monitor your blood pressure, since that’s a great marker for ho...