Sublime

The only snag: you can’t lower your CAC score with the orthodox approach of a low-fat diet and medication. You need to follow the Eat Rich, Live Long plan, especially reducing your insulin by eating a low-carb, high-fat diet.

A year after Jeff’s first CAC scan, his score was down to 38—a remarkable 36 percent reduction. Since eating low-carb, high-fat foods, Jeff’s total cholesterol has increased significantly, but his crucial triglyceride-to-HDL ratio is now routinely less than 1. Also, his important HDL value has been as high as 88 mg/dL.

Since insulin resistance develops from persistently high insulin levels, it can only be broken by repeat periods of very low insulin levels. Eating the right foods only prevents insulin spikes. What lowers insulin levels is fasting—precisely intermittent fasts of twenty-four to thirty-six hours.

developing fat-filled livers and creating foie gras right inside of our own bodies.

Nuts, in moderation, are another good choice for an after-dinner indulgence.

conventional advice to eat less and move more fails because it ignores the multifactorial nature of obesity, and because the body has an efficient homeostatic mechanism that moderates changes in caloric intake and expenditure to maintain a set weight.

What actually causes weight gain and what can we do about it? This question is the overall theme of this book.

A subject’s blood sugar response is identical whether a dose of glucose is given by mouth or intravenously. But, despite the same level of blood sugar, the subject’s insulin levels differ greatly. Remarkably, the insulin response to oral glucose was much more powerful.