How to be smart about burning fat

Carbs are bad, carbs are good. Fats are bad, fats are good. With the constantly changing messages about what’s best for our health, it is easy to become overwhelmed when it comes to eating right.

After all, if even nutrition experts seem confused about nutrition, is it easier to stop fighting the good fight? Brain neurosurgeon and recently published author Dr. Larry McCleary answers with a resounding "no."

McCleary clears up the air about all this government-backed nutritional advice: It turns out doctors aren’t contradicting themselves as much as it seems. Rather, 35 years ago when doctors told government officials that Americans eat too many calories, they tried to simplify the issue by advising the public to limit fats, the most calorie-dense element in food.

And Americans listened, cutting fat out of their diets by 20 percent, McCleary said. Yet obesity rates have risen by 250 percent in the meantime.

In his book, “Feed Your Brain Lose Your Belly,” McCleary explains this seemingly paradoxical phenomenon.

The flaw with an old-school, low-fat diet lies in the nutritionally-sparse low-fat foods presented on grocery store shelves today, he said.

Because these processed, packaged goods lack the fiber and healthy fats necessary to keep our bodies energized and our stomachs feeling full, they cause our brain to go into "starvation mode," he said.

And because our brains run on sugar — adequate amounts of which are found in the body's natural blood stream — the brain first demands sugar when starvation mode hits.

McCleary's dietary advice is all about overcoming those tricky impulsive brain messages, bringing the mind and body in tune with one another.

"You could call it more of a holistic approach ... It's really a whole approach to living," he said.

Certainly, "Feed Your Brain Lose Your Belly" is not a strict list of do's and don'ts (though you can find food lists and meal ideas within its pages). Instead, his overarching message is simple: Get enough sleep. Avoid stress. Exercise appropriately. And, most of all, make healthy food choices.

Using experiences from the world he knows best (advising parents in nursing their child's sick brain back to health), the former children's brain surgeon details precisely which foods are the healthiest choices and why based on the connection between the brain and the belly.