Glycemic Index and Atkins Diets Are Kissing Cousins

Much fanfare has been made about the so-called revolutionary new diet plan known as the glycemic index (GI) in recent months as the media is falling all over themselves to point out the fact that it has usurped the popularity of what they like to describe as the "controversial Atkins diet."

But stories like this one prove that they are either stupid or ignorant about what the glycemic index is.

The story declares that the GI diet has "boosted sales of berries" among other foods in the UK. Yet strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and more are all completely acceptable and even encouraged for people who are livin' la vida low-carb. While the story also mentions bananas as a great GI food, these are NOT good for your low-carb lifestyle.

Interesting, the GI diet is described in this article as "choosing low carbohydrate foods and lean meats ... fruit, whole-grain bread and vegetables are good, while white rolls, pasta and crisps are bad."

Uh, guess what? That's exactly what livin' la vida low-carb is about, too. While the media is trying its darndest to make the Atkins diet disappear into oblivion, the fact remains that all of these "new and improved" versions are nothing more than kissing cousins of the low-carb lifestyle that we low-carbers love and enjoy.

A lot of my readers follow a GI diet and proudly do so as a member of the low-carb community. It's like my South Beach diet friends who eat more carbs than I do, but they are also members of this low-carb community, too.

If we counted all the people who are eating a controlled-carb, high-protein, low-sugar eating plan, then the numbers would be shocking to a lot of people. I dare say one-third of people are on some form of low-carb program, whether it is Atkins, South Beach, GI diet or some other program. The fact is that they work!

I think the common thread we see in all of these low-carb programs is an emphasis on cutting out the sugar from our foods. I've said it many times, but sugar, in the form of table sugar and high fructuse corn syrup, is directly responsible for the obesity problem we are experiencing right now in the United States.

Until something is done to control the 146 pounds of sugar we are stuffing down our throats on average year after year, we will not see an improvement in the obesity rates and associated health problems and costs that come with the extra weight. All the while the low-carb solution is completely ignored. What is it going to take to get people to wake up to the fact that they are harming themselves by not doing something about their weight?

I don't care how you do it, but you ought to care enough about yourself that you are willing to do whatever you can to lose weight. For me, low-carb was the answer. It may not be for you, but you have to do something. Your future is at stake and, frankly, the future of the United States of America could be adversely affected if obesity continues to have a stronghold on our healthcare system. It's just such a shame when a proven weight loss method in low-carb is staring us in the face and all the media and government want to do is scare people away from it. Ugh!