Are You a Carboholic? Why Cutting Carbs Is So Tough

[elleng]

'I’ve been eating a high-fat, carb-restricted diet for almost 20 years, since I started as an experiment when investigating nutrition research for the journal Science. I find it’s easy for me to maintain a healthy weight when I eat this way. But even after two decades, the sensation of being on the edge of a slippery slope is ever-present.

The holidays and family vacations are a particular problem. Desserts and sweets, it seems, will appear after every lunch and dinner, and I’m not particularly good at saying no when everyone else is partaking. The more sweets I eat, the more we eat as a family, the longer it takes upon returning home before that expectation of a daily treat fades away.

What I’ve realized is that eating a little of a tasty dessert or a little pasta or bread fails to satisfy me. Rather it ignites a fierce craving for more, to eat it all and then some. I find it easier to avoid sugar, grains and starches entirely, rather than to try to eat them in moderation. The question is why.

To begin to answer that question requires understanding that researchers are generally divided not only on what causes obesity, but also why we have cravings and often fail to stay on diets.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/well/eat/are-you-a-carboholic-why-cutting-carbs-is-so-tough.html?

[Binkie The Clown]

1. I eat a starch-based vegan diet and I NEVER have a problem sticking to it.

Mountains of clinical research show that this is the healthiest diet humans can eat. The anti-carb movement is B.S.. People can't stay on it because it not natural.

Once I went starch-based vegan, my B.P. went from dangerously high to low-normal. My cholesterol went from borderline high to low-normal. My weight went from 40 pounds overweight to ideal. My blood sugar went from pre-diabetes to completely normal. My energy and stamina went from lousy to fantastic. I'm 72 and I jog/walk several miles every day. When I was 50, and still eating low-carb garbage, I couldn't walk to the mailbox without chest pains.

If you have to struggle to stay on a diet, then that diet is not right for you.

Oh, and the researchers who aren't sure what causes obesity are the ones on the payroll of the meat and dairy industries.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. If it works for you, fine, but another mountain of research says a high carb diet...

had a lot to do with my having Type II diabetes.

[Binkie The Clown]

3. Mountains of research have shown type II diabetes sometimes CURED with starch-based diet.

The problem is that doctors have practically no education on diet, and what little they have is outdated. Ask a doctor what you should eat to get more potassium and they will tell you bananas. Why? Because the fruit companies pushed that meme. Raisins have more potassium than bananas. So do potatoes. In fact, list the top 100 food source of potassium and bananas don't even make the list. But still a doctor will tell you bananas, not becuase he knows what he's talking about, but because he's repeating some old wives tale he heard.

Start with The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine to learn the truth, and stop being brainwashed by the very industry that wants you to stay sick so they can profit from you.

Oh, and carbs don't cause type II diabetes. Fat does.

On Edit: A short excerpt:

Studies dating back nearly a century noted a striking finding: If you take young, healthy people and split them up into two groups—half on a fat-rich diet and half on a carbohydrate-rich diet—we find that within just two days, glucose intolerance skyrockets in the fat group. The group that had been shoveling fat in ended up with twice the blood sugar. As the amount of fat in the diet goes up, so does one’s blood sugar. Why would eating fat lead to higher blood sugar levels? It would take scientists nearly seven decades to unravel this mystery, but it would end up holding the key to our current understanding of the cause of type 2 diabetes.

The reason athletes carb-load before a race is to build up the fuel supply within their muscles. We break down the starch into glucose in our digestive tract; it circulates as blood glucose (blood sugar) and is taken up by our muscles to be stored and burnt for energy.

Blood sugar, though, is like a vampire. It needs an invitation to come into our cells. That invitation is insulin. Insulin is the key that unlocks the door that lets glucose in the blood enter muscle cells. When insulin attaches to the insulin receptor on the cell, it activates an enzyme, which activates another enzyme, which activates two more enzymes, which finally activates glucose transport (as diagrammed in my video What Causes Insulin Resistance?).

[TreasonousBastard]

4. The dietician and pharmacist on my team have a different take on this...

and I know personally what eating a piece of cake does to my blood sugar.

And don't talk about "natural" carbs like root vegetables or agave syrup-- glycemic index is a thing, but the reasons for glucose intolerance are myriad. I have a combination of low insulin production and high insulin resistance.

Medical advice from amateurs with "big news" can be dangerous.

[Binkie The Clown]

5. I wouldn't eat a piece of cake if you paid me!!! That's not carbs, that garbage.

Carbs are whole grains, beans, potatoes, etc. If you think of eating carbs as eating cake and potato chips, then I don't blame you for condemning that diet. It's horrible.

I'm not giving you advice, I'm giving you links to qualified doctors and researchers and leaving the advice up to them. But ultimately, the choice is yours. Follow a faith-based diet or science-based diet. But be warned that for every article you produce that says you're right, I can produce another that says you're wrong. If you want to know the truth, find who is funding which lines of research. Follow the money, and the anti-carb "research" always leads back to the meat and dairy industry. Deny it without checking on it if you prefer, but just know that if you eventually want to learn the truth, the truth is out there. And supplied by qualified doctors who are not funded by the very industries that stand to profit by misleading you.

My work here is done. Carry on, and I sincerely wish you best of luck with your medical issues. It's no fun, I know. I had loads of medical issues too before I opened my eyes and followed the science.