Low-Carb Diet Is 'Neither Sensible Nor Practical'
They've been quiet a while, but now another one had to go and spout off at the mouth again. It's almost as if the members of the media, especially the ones who write about food and health, can't help themselves but go off on a tangent about livin' la vida low-carb.
That's exactly what we see in this Times & Democrat column by journalist Teresa Hatchell in her slam piece on low-carb entitled "Well-balanced diet makes common sense."
Hoo boy, here we go with the whole "balanced diet" thing again. Don't these ritards realize that livin' la vida low-carb IS common sense and gives us all the balance we need to live a long and healthy life? Apparently not.
Because her column isn't very long I'd like to respond to each of Hatchell's highly misguided and blatant ignorance about the low-carb lifestyle. Got a pen and paper to take notes, Ms. Hatchell? Class is now in session.
For the past few years, people throughout America have been touting the benefits of low-carb diets as if consuming as few carbohydrates as possible is the magic answer to controlling their weight.
It's not just people in America, Ms. Hatchell, but AROUND THE WORLD to the tune of tens of millions of happily devoted followers. In fact, livin' la vida low-carb is even MORE POPULAR than American Idol and will STAY popular for many years to come because people are losing weight, getting healthy, and keeping the weight off for good! It IS our "magic" miracle that we've been searching for our entire lives!
I have watched many relatives and friends “suffer” through week after week of low-carb dieting.
Hmmm, your relatives are having to "suffer" on low-carb, eh? Why is that? They don't like the delicious benefits of eating high-quality cuts of meats and cheeses while enjoying other protein-packed foods like eggs, nuts, seeds, butter, cream, sugar-free chocolate, coconut oil, spinach leaves, green beans, cauliflower, blueberries, melon...need I go on? I've never been so excited about eating this healthy before starting low-carb, so there must be SOMETHING keep people like me on it. Oh, by the way, you can't eat ANY of these foods on the failed high-carb, low-fat diet! :P
And, sure enough, they lose a good bit of weight initially.
You bet your sweet bippy you lose LOTS of weight on low-carb right away! I lost 30 pounds in my first month on Atkins and 40 more pounds in the second month back in 2004! This year when I started on the Kimkins diet, I've lost 34 pounds in the first 36 days. Yep, the weight does come pouring off of you on this way of eating, that's for sure!
Eventually, they quit losing weight and have to “shock” their metabolisms by eating carbs for a few weeks, only to resume the monotonous diet again.
Huh?! What in the world are you talking about, Ms. Hatchell? Regardless of the diet you choose, there will be a point where your weight will stall. But this is no reason to give up and quit. I went 10 weeks in a row in 2004 without a single pound of weight loss, but I put my head down and kept chugging along. The weight loss I had up until that point proved this plan worked and my body was just going through an adjustment. Perhaps your "relatives and friends" should have simply stuck with it rather than giving up so easily and they would have been just as successful as I was!
Carbohydrates are the main source of energy in our diets, with fats second.
WRONG-O! Your body absolutely NEEDS fat and protein, but it most definitely does NOT need carbohydrates thanks to a beautiful metabolic mechanism known as gluconeogenesis where the body can produce its own carbs to fuel the body. Ketone bodies are what are original ancestors survived on and these were produced naturally by their very low-carb, high-protein diets. If carbs are the "main source of energy," then how in the world did they survive, hmmm? Try telling that to Dr. Jay Wortman who has studied the diet of aboriginal groups in Canada.
So, if you want to lose weight, reducing their intake is a good way to do it.
Not just "good," Ms. Hatchell, but EXTREMELY effective. In fact, this study from Stanford found it to be the BEST of all the diets for weight loss. With success like that, why would you choose any other option?
However, cutting them out as much as possible is neither sensible nor practical, as you will also be cutting out important nutrients.
This has always been a laughable point. What "important nutrients" am I missing from my diet, Ms. Hatchell? Can you name ONE? This is one of those straw man arguments that these anti-low-carb minions keep chugging out there and it doesn't stick. As I've stated before, I've never eaten so healthy in all of my life than what I have these past 3 1/2 years on low-carb. It is the MOST sensible and practical way I have even eaten in my entire life and I'll never go back to a high-carb diet again!
Nutritionists stress that it is unwise to embark on a drastic reduction of carbohydrates all at once.
Well, that's not surprising since most nutritionists have been spoon-fed that a high-carb, low-fat diet is healthy. I've had my run-ins and differences of opinion with these well-meaning folks many times at my blog, including here, here, here, here, and here, just to name a few. In a way, I don't blame them for thinking low-carb is bad. But I wish they would do their own research and find out how awesome this healthy lifestyle change really is. My life proves it every single day!
If you introduce the new eating pattern gradually, you will not encounter the mood swings or hunger pangs that accompany drastic diets.
I disagree. If you are gonna start livin' la vida low-carb (and it's HIGHLY recommended, especially for people who are insulin resistant and/or have a LOT of weight to lose), then eliminating sugar, white flour, starchy carbs, and refined carbs from your diet IMMEDIATELY is priority one. No gradual decrease because you need to make the transition from your poor habits to better ones. Once you get off of your addiction to sugar/carbs, you'll feel so much better than you ever have before! BELIEVE IT!
Besides, such diets usually result in frustration and failure.
Not if you are committed to them from the beginning and realize those first few days are the toughest. Get on plan, push through the temporary pain in week one, and you will notice something incredible happen to you--a sudden boost of energy, stabilized blood sugars, mental clarity--and, oh yeah, LOTS OF WEIGHT LOSS, baby! :) It's impossible to get frustrated and fail when you have all that happening for you. But if you quit before that can happen, then it's your own fault.
Maintaining a balanced diet, with a slight reduction of carbs and fats, and cutting out fat- and carb-laden snack foods is a much more common-sense approach to losing weight and maintaining a healthy weight.
If losing weight and keeping it off only took "common sense," then there'd be a whole lot less fat people walking around this planet nowadays. Unfortunately, there is such subjectivity when it comes to a "healthy diet" that people have become unnecessarily confused about what they should be eating. Do what works for you, I always say, but that may mean SUBSTANTIALLY lowering your carbs while someone else may need to reduce their fat intake. To pretend a "one-size-fits-all" dietary recommendation for everyone is even remotely common sense is quite presumptuous and I dare say a dangerous message, Ms. Hatchell. Give people solid information and letting them decide what's best for them is the real solution to obesity.
Want more proof Hatchell is completely off base with her diet advice? Check out the two recipes she posted at the end of her column which she claims are "both low in fat and low in carbohydrates." Um, I hate to break it to you, Ms. Hatchell, but honey is SUGAR and white rice is STARCHY CARBS. Nice try, but I call your bluff!
You can share what you think about Teresa Hatchell and her opinions of livin' la vida low-carb by e-mailing her directly at tgmhatchell@yahoo.com. Be sure to tell her all about your incredible success both with your weight and health over the long-term by eating this way. People like her need to know there are LOTS of us who have been more successful than she even realizes. Let's give her a taste of livin' la vida low-carb, shall we? :D
7-13-07 UPDATE: Now here's a special response to this column that I think you'll enjoy:
The current copy of Consumers Report also disses low carb diets. They point out that the diets were not tested (Isn't that the whole point of Consumers Report? To actually test things?), but rated by a panel of nutritionists as to how it compares to the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
As long as diet plans continue to be ranked based on the U.S. Guidelines, we will get bad advice and will likely continue to get fatter and sicker. Just look at the food pyramid; it has sugar at the top and sugar at the bottom. Sweets are placed at the point, which means eat just a little, BUT all that bread and pasta at the bottom is also sugar.
The only part of your body that can tell the difference between sugar and starch is your mouth. Starches are just chains of glucose molecules and glucose is sugar. Starches don’t trigger the sweet receptors on the tongue, but they are still sugars. Sugars provoke the release of insulin, the fat-storage hormone. Excess insulin leads to obesity, diabetes, and all the other health problems that have gotten worse in the last 30 years since our government first told us to cut out fat and it was replaced with sugar.
I recently returned from a trip to Europe and it was sad to see how easy it was to pick out the Americans at the airports. And those were just the ones who would fit on the planes! Perhaps that is part of the reason that so many people in other countries have such low opinions of us. They think we are lazy gluttons, when in reality we are the ones starving ourselves and working out till we drop.
Losing weight is not hard. Trans fats, toxins, pollutants, or other factors may have contributed to our epidemic of obesity and diabetes, but whatever the cause, insulin resistance is the result, and when you reduce your need for insulin by cutting down on carbohydrates, the problem is solved.
Many people reject low-carb diets based on hearsay. If you actually read a book, like Protein Power or Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution, you will discover that the system is based on sound science and its nutrition is the best match for human metabolism. Try it yourself and you will be convinced. Have a checkup with medical tests done before you start and again after six months on the diet.
All your risk factors for disease go down, your blood lipid profile improves, your blood pressure normalizes, and, contrary to popular opinion, you will find that you are eating two or three times as many vegetables and fruits as the average American.
The last argument we always hear is that nobody likes a low-carb diet and it’s too hard to stick to. Not so. My husband and I have been doing it for almost eight years now and although we had to make some changes, I honestly think we eat better now than we did before.
Judy Barnes Baker, author
CARB WARS: Sugar is the New Fat
www.carbwarscookbook.com
PS: How can you say that your recipe with 2 cups of rice, 1/2 cup of honey, and mangoes is low carb? Have you actually calculated the nutrition counts using those foods?
That's exactly what we see in this Times & Democrat column by journalist Teresa Hatchell in her slam piece on low-carb entitled "Well-balanced diet makes common sense."
Hoo boy, here we go with the whole "balanced diet" thing again. Don't these ritards realize that livin' la vida low-carb IS common sense and gives us all the balance we need to live a long and healthy life? Apparently not.
Because her column isn't very long I'd like to respond to each of Hatchell's highly misguided and blatant ignorance about the low-carb lifestyle. Got a pen and paper to take notes, Ms. Hatchell? Class is now in session.
For the past few years, people throughout America have been touting the benefits of low-carb diets as if consuming as few carbohydrates as possible is the magic answer to controlling their weight.
It's not just people in America, Ms. Hatchell, but AROUND THE WORLD to the tune of tens of millions of happily devoted followers. In fact, livin' la vida low-carb is even MORE POPULAR than American Idol and will STAY popular for many years to come because people are losing weight, getting healthy, and keeping the weight off for good! It IS our "magic" miracle that we've been searching for our entire lives!
I have watched many relatives and friends “suffer” through week after week of low-carb dieting.
Hmmm, your relatives are having to "suffer" on low-carb, eh? Why is that? They don't like the delicious benefits of eating high-quality cuts of meats and cheeses while enjoying other protein-packed foods like eggs, nuts, seeds, butter, cream, sugar-free chocolate, coconut oil, spinach leaves, green beans, cauliflower, blueberries, melon...need I go on? I've never been so excited about eating this healthy before starting low-carb, so there must be SOMETHING keep people like me on it. Oh, by the way, you can't eat ANY of these foods on the failed high-carb, low-fat diet! :P
And, sure enough, they lose a good bit of weight initially.
You bet your sweet bippy you lose LOTS of weight on low-carb right away! I lost 30 pounds in my first month on Atkins and 40 more pounds in the second month back in 2004! This year when I started on the Kimkins diet, I've lost 34 pounds in the first 36 days. Yep, the weight does come pouring off of you on this way of eating, that's for sure!
Eventually, they quit losing weight and have to “shock” their metabolisms by eating carbs for a few weeks, only to resume the monotonous diet again.
Huh?! What in the world are you talking about, Ms. Hatchell? Regardless of the diet you choose, there will be a point where your weight will stall. But this is no reason to give up and quit. I went 10 weeks in a row in 2004 without a single pound of weight loss, but I put my head down and kept chugging along. The weight loss I had up until that point proved this plan worked and my body was just going through an adjustment. Perhaps your "relatives and friends" should have simply stuck with it rather than giving up so easily and they would have been just as successful as I was!
Carbohydrates are the main source of energy in our diets, with fats second.
WRONG-O! Your body absolutely NEEDS fat and protein, but it most definitely does NOT need carbohydrates thanks to a beautiful metabolic mechanism known as gluconeogenesis where the body can produce its own carbs to fuel the body. Ketone bodies are what are original ancestors survived on and these were produced naturally by their very low-carb, high-protein diets. If carbs are the "main source of energy," then how in the world did they survive, hmmm? Try telling that to Dr. Jay Wortman who has studied the diet of aboriginal groups in Canada.
So, if you want to lose weight, reducing their intake is a good way to do it.
Not just "good," Ms. Hatchell, but EXTREMELY effective. In fact, this study from Stanford found it to be the BEST of all the diets for weight loss. With success like that, why would you choose any other option?
However, cutting them out as much as possible is neither sensible nor practical, as you will also be cutting out important nutrients.
This has always been a laughable point. What "important nutrients" am I missing from my diet, Ms. Hatchell? Can you name ONE? This is one of those straw man arguments that these anti-low-carb minions keep chugging out there and it doesn't stick. As I've stated before, I've never eaten so healthy in all of my life than what I have these past 3 1/2 years on low-carb. It is the MOST sensible and practical way I have even eaten in my entire life and I'll never go back to a high-carb diet again!
Nutritionists stress that it is unwise to embark on a drastic reduction of carbohydrates all at once.
Well, that's not surprising since most nutritionists have been spoon-fed that a high-carb, low-fat diet is healthy. I've had my run-ins and differences of opinion with these well-meaning folks many times at my blog, including here, here, here, here, and here, just to name a few. In a way, I don't blame them for thinking low-carb is bad. But I wish they would do their own research and find out how awesome this healthy lifestyle change really is. My life proves it every single day!
If you introduce the new eating pattern gradually, you will not encounter the mood swings or hunger pangs that accompany drastic diets.
I disagree. If you are gonna start livin' la vida low-carb (and it's HIGHLY recommended, especially for people who are insulin resistant and/or have a LOT of weight to lose), then eliminating sugar, white flour, starchy carbs, and refined carbs from your diet IMMEDIATELY is priority one. No gradual decrease because you need to make the transition from your poor habits to better ones. Once you get off of your addiction to sugar/carbs, you'll feel so much better than you ever have before! BELIEVE IT!
Besides, such diets usually result in frustration and failure.
Not if you are committed to them from the beginning and realize those first few days are the toughest. Get on plan, push through the temporary pain in week one, and you will notice something incredible happen to you--a sudden boost of energy, stabilized blood sugars, mental clarity--and, oh yeah, LOTS OF WEIGHT LOSS, baby! :) It's impossible to get frustrated and fail when you have all that happening for you. But if you quit before that can happen, then it's your own fault.
Maintaining a balanced diet, with a slight reduction of carbs and fats, and cutting out fat- and carb-laden snack foods is a much more common-sense approach to losing weight and maintaining a healthy weight.
If losing weight and keeping it off only took "common sense," then there'd be a whole lot less fat people walking around this planet nowadays. Unfortunately, there is such subjectivity when it comes to a "healthy diet" that people have become unnecessarily confused about what they should be eating. Do what works for you, I always say, but that may mean SUBSTANTIALLY lowering your carbs while someone else may need to reduce their fat intake. To pretend a "one-size-fits-all" dietary recommendation for everyone is even remotely common sense is quite presumptuous and I dare say a dangerous message, Ms. Hatchell. Give people solid information and letting them decide what's best for them is the real solution to obesity.
Want more proof Hatchell is completely off base with her diet advice? Check out the two recipes she posted at the end of her column which she claims are "both low in fat and low in carbohydrates." Um, I hate to break it to you, Ms. Hatchell, but honey is SUGAR and white rice is STARCHY CARBS. Nice try, but I call your bluff!
You can share what you think about Teresa Hatchell and her opinions of livin' la vida low-carb by e-mailing her directly at tgmhatchell@yahoo.com. Be sure to tell her all about your incredible success both with your weight and health over the long-term by eating this way. People like her need to know there are LOTS of us who have been more successful than she even realizes. Let's give her a taste of livin' la vida low-carb, shall we? :D
7-13-07 UPDATE: Now here's a special response to this column that I think you'll enjoy:
The current copy of Consumers Report also disses low carb diets. They point out that the diets were not tested (Isn't that the whole point of Consumers Report? To actually test things?), but rated by a panel of nutritionists as to how it compares to the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
As long as diet plans continue to be ranked based on the U.S. Guidelines, we will get bad advice and will likely continue to get fatter and sicker. Just look at the food pyramid; it has sugar at the top and sugar at the bottom. Sweets are placed at the point, which means eat just a little, BUT all that bread and pasta at the bottom is also sugar.
The only part of your body that can tell the difference between sugar and starch is your mouth. Starches are just chains of glucose molecules and glucose is sugar. Starches don’t trigger the sweet receptors on the tongue, but they are still sugars. Sugars provoke the release of insulin, the fat-storage hormone. Excess insulin leads to obesity, diabetes, and all the other health problems that have gotten worse in the last 30 years since our government first told us to cut out fat and it was replaced with sugar.
I recently returned from a trip to Europe and it was sad to see how easy it was to pick out the Americans at the airports. And those were just the ones who would fit on the planes! Perhaps that is part of the reason that so many people in other countries have such low opinions of us. They think we are lazy gluttons, when in reality we are the ones starving ourselves and working out till we drop.
Losing weight is not hard. Trans fats, toxins, pollutants, or other factors may have contributed to our epidemic of obesity and diabetes, but whatever the cause, insulin resistance is the result, and when you reduce your need for insulin by cutting down on carbohydrates, the problem is solved.
Many people reject low-carb diets based on hearsay. If you actually read a book, like Protein Power or Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution, you will discover that the system is based on sound science and its nutrition is the best match for human metabolism. Try it yourself and you will be convinced. Have a checkup with medical tests done before you start and again after six months on the diet.
All your risk factors for disease go down, your blood lipid profile improves, your blood pressure normalizes, and, contrary to popular opinion, you will find that you are eating two or three times as many vegetables and fruits as the average American.
The last argument we always hear is that nobody likes a low-carb diet and it’s too hard to stick to. Not so. My husband and I have been doing it for almost eight years now and although we had to make some changes, I honestly think we eat better now than we did before.
Judy Barnes Baker, author
CARB WARS: Sugar is the New Fat
www.carbwarscookbook.com
PS: How can you say that your recipe with 2 cups of rice, 1/2 cup of honey, and mangoes is low carb? Have you actually calculated the nutrition counts using those foods?
Labels: carbs, criticism, diet, low-carb, Teresa Hatchell, weight loss
posted by Jimmy Moore at
7/12/2007 08:17:00 PM
12 Comments
