It’s been five years since the last low-carb magazine in America fell by the wayside as the costs of running a print publication to a niche audience became more and more difficult under the illusion that the low-carb “fad” as the media likes to refer to it had come and gone. But for those of us who have continued on with our high-fat, moderate protein, low-carb lifestyle change, we have been left to seek out information in alternative places such as blogs, forums, podcasts, and YouTube. That was my motivation for starting the “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb” concept back in 2005 after my 180-pound weight loss on the Atkins diet. But in Sweden, where LCHF (Low-Carb, High-Fat) has taken off like gangbusters over the past few years, the time for starting a magazine devoted to that subject just seemed like a no-brainer to the brain trust behind LCHF Magazine.
This ambitious project was undertaken by a quartet of Swedish LCHF pioneers in 2009 as a means for spreading the message out to a wider audience. Who are these four very brave people willing to take a chance on a concept like a low-carb magazine? It’s a virtual who’s who of the leaders in the LCHF movement in Sweden: Sten Sture Skaldeman is a journalist and bestselling LCHF author, Bo Zackrisson is a medical journalist and editor, Margareta Lundström is the chief administrator and economist and the great Dr. Annika Dahlqvist who is a general practitioner and bestselling author in her own right who withstood the aggressive legal attempt to have her medical license pulled when two dietitians steeped in conventional wisdom brought a complaint against her for using LCHF—and they lost! This dynamic foursome are the driving force behind the March 2010 debut in Sweden of LCHF Magazine with the sole purpose of focusing on the subject of low-carb diets and their positive impact on health. Today the magazine boasts 6,300 subscribers in 23 countries–a great success for a small but growing magazine.
Skaldeman, Zackrisson, and Lundström were all on the Low-Carb Cruise I help organize in the United States each year and they came in 2011 to report on it for LCHF Magazine. In fact, we had a very strong showing of 20 Swedes with us in support of Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt (aka “The Diet Doctor”) who was one of the featured speakers this year. They were taking it all in, interviewing the mostly-American low-carb cruisers, taking notes on the lectures by the guest speakers, and enjoying the entire experience along the way. The next issue of LCHF Magazine will be dedicated to this event where they will be inviting other LCHF-loving Swedes to join them on the 2012 Low-Carb Cruise. They’re hoping to bring 100 people from Sweden next year and what a delight that would be!
While they were in America, the LCHF Magazine team actually toured various places in the United States starting off in Chicago and making their way south into my neck of the woods in the Upstate of South Carolina. We visited the local farm where I purchase my grass-fed beef, raw butter and other real, whole foods in my low-carb diet called Live Oak Farms. The farmers, Chuck and Allison Schaum, were gracious enough to show my Swedish friends around to see what farm life in 2011 America looks like. Watch this July 2010 mini-documentary about Live Oak Farms I posted to YouTube.
To give the English-speaking people on the 2011 Low-Carb Cruise a taste of what the burgeoning Swedish LCHF Magazine is all about, they created a very special edition of their publication–in ENGLISH! It includes three of their best articles about the LCHF movement in Sweden as they are seeking to bring about real changes in the eating habits of the Swedish population with influential articles from the key LCHF newsmakers. In this 12-page abbreviated version of the magazine, we had three columns to enjoy: a history of the Swedish LCHF movement, a spotlight on Dr. Sofie Hexeberg from Norway, and an interview with Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt.
So that you too can benefit from this extraordinary magazine, I have posted this special edition in its entirety for you below. Click on the corresponding page number and then hit your “back” button to click on the next number to read the entire thing. Special THANKS to the creators of LCHF Magazine for allowing us this peek inside the awesome work they are doing. Hopefully the magazine will continue to grow as the popularity of LCHF continues reaching beyond the borders of Sweden in the coming years–maybe even a full-length English version coming to the United States, Canada and the UK someday. I could see it happening!
Read this special 12-page edition of LCHF Magazine in English:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12
And because I’m so fired up by the exemplary work my low-carb friends in Sweden are doing promoting the message of LCHF so boldly, I was inspired to create a brand new blog dedicated to promoting their work in English. It’s called “Eat Like A Swede” and features information about the Low-Carb, High-Fat movement happening in Sweden with a focus on the key players involved (the “LCHF Heroes” as I call them), what the diet is all about, and a general update on the current state of affairs regarding LCHF in Sweden. Interviews with people in Sweden who have transformed their lives forever thanks to LCHF will be featured on the blog periodically to give you a snapshot of the life-changing impact this way of eating is having.
Additionally, I have BIG PLANS to visit Sweden sometime in the next year (Lord willing) to shoot video footage for a documentary film on what is happening there with LCHF. I’ve got a lot of Swedish friends who have offered to show me around their great country and sit down for interviews if and when I can make it over there. A flight to Sweden is a little more than $1,000 each roundtrip and I’d like to take my wife Christine with me to help take video footage and photos (plus, she’d kill me if I went to Sweden and didn’t take her!). Add in money for food, transportation, and other expenses and it’s gonna cost probably close to $4,000 for the three-week trip. If you’d like to help with these expenses, I’d appreciate donations of any amount towards this cause.
Check out EatLikeASwede.com and let me know what you think. I’ll work on adding new information to that site early and often to keep you abreast of what’s happening with LCHF there. If you have any suggestions for content or general feedback about the site, please feel free to e-mail me anytime at livinlowcarbman@charter.net.
