No carbs for you! Companies are rushing to put out products

The Boston Globe ^ | January 11, 2004 | Naomi Aoki

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Everyone from Subway Restaurants to Anheuser-Busch is jumping on board the low-carb bandwagon this New Year just in time to help folks with that evergreen resolution to shed unwanted pounds.

But dieter beware. Cutting carbohydrates is no magic ride to thin, fit, and healthy. Not at least according to nutritionists who simply refuse to budge from their trying old weight loss formula: Eat less and exercise more.

[KarlInOhio]

I wish the gov would crack down on the beer companies. Michelob Ultra claims only 2.6 grams of carbohydrates per bottle, but yet they ALSO say 95 calories.

Now 2.6 grams of carbs equals 10 calories. They also say the beer has 0 grams of fat and 0 grams of protein. So are they conveniently excluding 22 grams of SOME OTHER type of carb like FIBER? or something not very digestible like malitol/xylitol/splenda?

You left out everyone's favorite chemical in beer: alcohol. It provides 7 calories / gram. Those extra 85 calories mean 12 grams or about a half a fluid ounce.

[tubebender]

The first low carb diet was written by a mortician back in the late 1800s. I remember my mother reading Prevention Magazine around 1950 condemning white flour and other foods. She also replaced our aluminum cookware with stainless on Rodale's advice at the same time.

I have been lo-carbing for almost a year but because my wife prepares a terrific traditional holiday meal and it is one of the few times our family gets together. I indulged with them and I gained six pounds during that time and now that I am back to lo-carb it refuses to come off. I have come to the conclusion I must be eating too many mixed nuts to curb my appetite?

[verity]

A plastic box replaces the bread

I presume it is difficult to chew?

[tubebender]

BTW...I purchased 2 thick, well marbled Choice Rib Eyes at Costco Friday for $5.99 a pound down form $8.99 3 weeks ago... :-o)

[Kay Ludlow]

The eggheads that created the food pyramid with refined wheat at its base were wrong. As people have increased their consumption of carbs mostly in the form of refined wheat and sugar water over the years we have gotten fatter.

That's right! Along with the government subsidies for corn, resulting in corn syrup being used as the primary sweetener in everything. Before the subsidies, sweetening food made it more expensive, and market costs controlled consumption. Now, we not only sweeten cheap, we do it with the highest carb solution - corn syrup - instead of sugar cane sugars.

The food pyramid is a compromise political device that meets the ends of the PETA/vegan/Gaia worshippers, along with the wheat lobby. It does not reflect what we need to eat to be healthy, rather what they want us to eat. 20 years experimenting with our nutrition is long enough. The food pyramid needs to be abolished.

[SamAdams76]

I have never heard of any diet, Atkins or otherwise, that doesn't work much better if you are exercising.

I fully agree and that was the point of my reply.

With the success of my program, other family members have jumped on the low-carb wagon. However, none of them will consider doing what I am doing. Instead, they grab the Atkins book (or South Beach book) and go on that diet, ignoring my program, especially the exercise (walking) part of it.

Needless to say, while some of them have taken off a few pounds, none of them have been successful thus far. I think this is partly why the low-carb diet gets a bad rap. So many people go on a low-carb diet but fail to complement it with a exercise program that they ultimately fail. Thus the low-carb diet is lumped in with all the other diets that never seem to work.

I have discussed with family members my plan (everybody wants to copy my success) but when it comes down to it, they are not willing to make the sacrifices. Even with the diet itself. For example, those in my family on the "Atkins" plan insist on eating those Atkins candy bars and "low-carb" breads and cookies and whatnot. They also continue to eat processed foods that are loaded with trans-fats and other artificial ingredients. They figure that so long as the carb count is low, it's okay to eat, no matter what the food is made with. That's wrong.

With respect to exercise, they all tell me that they "don't have the time" to exercise. They will tell me that they don't need to lose weight that fast. "If it takes me twice as long to lose the weight you did by not exercising, that's fine with me" is what they tell me.

But the point is, they will never lose all the weight they need to lose without exercise.

As for not having the time, I don't buy the excuse. I'm a busy guy too but I find time to walk at least 5 miles a day. By walking at a brisk 4 mph pace, it only takes me an hour and fifteen minutes to do five miles. Usually that translates to a 45-minute walk in the morning and a 30-minute walk during lunch (or after work). I never have a problem fitting that into my schedule. You can walk ANYWHERE! I've gotten my walks done in shopping malls, on hotel treadmills, walking through downtown parks, walking through neighborhoods, whatever. There are always places to walk and no matter where you are, you can find a place to walk. In fact, it's fun to find new places and I find them all the time. When I visited my brother-in-law's house last weekend, I excused myself for an hour and walked four miles through his neighborhood. I found some trails leading into the woods near his house and explored the area, finding a pond, a horse farm and other things that my brother-in-law had no idea existed so close to his house.

[BillyJack]

"A true, severe carbo addict's metabolism is not fooled by diet foods. A sweet taste in the mouth can set off a hyperinsulin reaction as easily as cake can. Diet sodas have the same effect on me as a cookie."

Same here. I have a diet soda and twenty minutes later I'm looking for something to eat. The diet works best for me when I stick to plain old water. Matter of fact, as I write this response, I'm feeling hungry because I just finished a cup of coffee sweetened with Sweet 'n Low.

I've been on the diet for three years and have maintained my goal weight with little problem.

[agrace]

Good luck with the diet! My mom was diagnosed with type 2 about 10 years ago. She immediately cut out all sugar and lost about 50 pounds so fast that my brother (who only sees us every few months) thought she was ill. Then she struggled for the next decade to keep off the weight, all the while never being told that there are other dangerous carbohydrates besides sugary ones. Over time she continued to bounce back and forth with weight, never got her sugar under total control, lived in frustration, her dr finally put her on cholesterol meds and oral diabetes meds also.

She started Atkins about a year ago without telling her dr - she was afraid to and wanted to try it well within enough time for results before her next appt as he was threatening her with insulin at this point. In about 3 months, she lost over 30 lbs, and she found out at her next appt that her bloodwork was excellent - her sugar was normal and her cholesterol numbers had dropped into normal range. She then said she had been on Atkins and that she wanted to start cutting back on the meds.

Her dr was dumbfounded at the results and agreed to let her do what she wanted. Today she is totally off the pills and as long as she avoids bad carbs, she's in great shape and her dr has no complaints.

[agrace]

I love them too. Ever make pizza with them? I don't miss crust a bit!

[Diddle E. Squat]

Every time I hear about the Atkin's stampede I am reminded of the glasses Steve Martin invented in 'The Jerk'.

[4CJ]

Wonder if there will be any public apologies for all those "health-faddists" who were laughed at, sued, fined, and even put in prisons for their "outrageous" and "unhealthy" claims that white flour and white sugar were killing people???

Nope.

[Lael]

Not at least according to nutritionists who simply refuse to budge from their trying old weight loss formula

That's just it...the anti-carb magic has been known for more than a century...but it has to by reinvented because of powerful interests, not the least of whom are the Leftist "Diet for a Small Planet" crowd.

So, in the interests of ticking these types off, I'm looking into "The NO GRAIN Diet"...

The only way to remain thin, according to its author, is to foreswear GRAINS forever!

In other words, the only good grain is grain fed to farm animals!!!

Looks like people are finally voting with their stomachs!

[I still care]

The one I have been using is the "Carbohydrate Addiction Diet". It is very easy, and doable over years.

You basically eat no carbs during most of the day (forbidden also is palate-fooling foods, such as sugarless gum and diet soda) and for the evening you divide your plate into thirds - one third vegetables, one third proteins, and one third eating carbohydrate. You must not spend over an hour eating this meal, to minimize sustained insulin release.

I like it because it allows for a treat, and if I run into anything I really want, it is only at the most 24 hours before I can eat it. Also, things like weddings and special occasions, Christmas Dinner, etc, fit well into it. Just start out with a nice salad and some shrimp cocktail and you can finish up with that piece of Coconut Custard Pie that it doesn't seem like Christmas without - and you haven't broken the diet regimen. (Of course you are not supposed to "binge".)

The best book I think they have about it (the Hellers) is the "Carbohydrate Lifespan Diet".

[VOA]

bump

[I still care]

I remember back in school I could never chew gum when the kids handed it out, even sugarless, because my stomach would start rumbling in class...

[kcvl]

THE CARBOHYDRATE ADDICT'S
QUICK QUIZ®


http://www.carbohydrateaddicts.com/caquiz.html

[Hank Rearden]

Subway began selling two Atkins-friendly wraps -- the Turkey and Bacon Melt Wrap, with Monterey cheddar cheese, and the Chicken Bacon Ranch Wrap, with Swiss cheese -- two days before the New Year.

I tried one of the Turky/Bacon wraps a couple of days ago. Tasted pretty good, but an unbelievably bad deal. Small, few fillings, a small sprinkling (like a spoonful) of cheese, gone in about 4 bites. $4.69. Reminds me of most Atkins-branded products - hyperexpensive for what you get, with much better alternatives out there.

I won't be going back for another one. Sorry, Subway; you blew it the first time around.

[kcvl]

Carbohydrate Addicts Diet Review

http://www.diet-i.com/diets/carbohydrate-addicts-diet.htm

[muggs]

(There is a test to take to see which one is better - the first question being do you get hungrier and weaker for the day if you eat breakfast)

Which diet do you do best on if breakfast makes you hungrier? If I have breakfast I'm hungry all day and tend to overeat.

Is low carb good if you only want to lose 5 pounds?

[muggs]

I have been using low carb Tortillas by LaTortilla Factory

I bought some of them this morning. They really are good.