Mr. McGowan is quite right. There are 8 amino acids that are essential and that we get from proteins; there are 2 essential fatty acids that we get from, yes, FAT; however, there are NO essential carbohydrates. None. We can make any carb we need from stuff lying around our metabolic milieu.
What I DO tell my patients who low carb it is that the only side effect is constipation, so a fiber supplement is recommended.
I agree absolutely with you that Mr McGowan is quite right. In fact, while reading his posts, I could almost hear myself speaking (pontificating;-)).
On the subject of constipation, it may be a problem for some low carb people, it’s not necessarily the same for everyone. While I had never been very high carb, I tended to have problems in winter when having much more starchy, but “healthy whole grain”, foods. In my 50’s, my weight was creeping up constantly, year by year. In December 2012, after reading Dr William Davis’ Wheat Belly, I went very low carb concentrating specifically on going wheat free - MAGIC!
As a 5’4” female of a very light-weight build, at that stage, age 56, I had reached 70.2kg (154lbs). The first 7kg disappeared within a few months, the next 5 over a longer period. The fibre I took in came from large helpings of broccoli and cauliflower (very low nett carbs) with my meat, chicken and fish, modest portions of low nett carb nuts like pecans and the occasional small amount of fruit.
Interestingly, over the last couple of months (the South African winter), I’ve been doing some experimenting to see if I could give myself more variety. I’ve used beans (borlotti, pinto, etc) in mince dishes, and I’ve tried some pasta in spite of the wheat as I’ve read that some people tolerate durum wheat better than the form in bread. I had no strong reaction to either as I did when trying a sandwich a few months after going wheat-free (major cramps). However, the increased intake of that type of fibre hasn’t done me any good - constipation a couple of times and generally feeling less comfortable. My weight can also go up by 3 kg to 61kg, although in Dec 2012 I never thought I would see even 65kg again.
I think that the moral of this story is that one can get a fair amount of “gut-friendly” fibre with low nett carb veggies and nuts, some salads and berries, etc. Fibre supplements may not be necessary.
Fortunately, my local South African doctor is totally in favour of the low carb way of eating, which is quite rare here.
On a lighter note, I’m in Cape Town, known as the Mother City of South Africa, some say because it takes us 9 months to get anything done! I bought the Wheat Belly book in March 2012 and it took me 9 months to start putting it into practice.