is one of the better baddies. One can still
have 70% chocolate occasionally with
some degree of safety.
Question: For people suffering with high
cholesterol, do you recommend that they
stay away from carbs?
Monique : Diets that are high in sugar and
carbohydrates affect the LDL cholesterol
particle, making it compact and thus more
likely to adhere to the walls of arteries.
LCHF causes the LDL’s to become big and
fluffy, reducing the bonding to the walls of
the arteries and thus reducing clogging.
Vegetables are also carbs, so you cannot
really get away from carbohydrates
altogether unless you want a totally boring
diet. On the other hand vegetables have
a much lower carbohydrate content than
breads or grains, flour and sugars and they
are full of essential and helpful nutrients.
Question: What about people wanting to
follow LCHF but cannot afford the high cost
of the specialised almond flours and other
products such as Psyllium husk?
Monique: I usually say that it is generally
not a more expensive way of eating. If you
consider the junk food and snacky things
that people on a high carb diet eat, and
add up the cost, then it adds up. With the
LCHF diet, because you are eating more
fat; fat is what fills you up, and you also eat
a lot less often, then the amount of money
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Brides Essence.com - Issue 10
spent will probably be less than a normal
high carb diet if you compare grocery
spending on a month to month basis. You
cannot compare cake flour which is cheap
to almond flour which is pricey because
you will eat a lot less with LCHF.
Question: What is the timeframe that one
can expect to notice a difference once on
the LCHF ?
Monique: It really depends from individual
to individual. It generally depends on your
weight. If you are very overweight and
need to lose 40kg, you will find the weight
loss rapid. If on the other hand you only
need to loose 3 kilograms, then it will take
longer. Mattias is Monique’s boyfriend.
His mother was diagnosed as a type 1
diabetic, meaning that she always has to
take insulin. She suffered with fainting and
insulin highs and lows. Once she started the
LCHF diet, she lost 12 kgs in 4 months, and
she is using ¼ the amount of insulin. When
her doctor asked her what she was doing
to have this miraculous turnaround in her
health, she told him that she was eating
LCHF. His first response was “Don’t do that,
its dangerous!!”.
Question: What cookbooks are there that
are suitable for baking?
Monique: I have written 2 books and am
currently working on book number 3. Having
come from being overweight, my approach
is still to avoid baked confectionary. A lot
of the cookbooks that are available still use
things such as non-nutritive sweeteners, of
which most are unhealthy to say the least.
So the best approach is to avoid
the sweetness in foods, which
still leads to cravings. If