FDA: The Low-Carb Diet Is 'Sheer Nonsense' - The Common Voice

[jacobsmomyatta 0]

i can never stick to the low carb diets but i am anxious to try!! give me some tips....

[Corliss 0]

I lost 203 lbs with my previous band. I did not consistently do low carb but it was absolutely wonderful for getting me off plateaus. I lost my band due to a slip Sept. 19, 2008. I gained wt. on every diet I tried. The only one I lost any wt on was a modified low carb where my carbs were from vegetables and a small amount of fruit and of course dairy. I could not consistantly stay on low carb and it was neccesary to get another band. I am thrilled to have a band. At this time I am 45 lbs from goal again and just started back on low carb, high fat, moderate/high Protein. I intend to keep my band as loose as possible in hopes of avoiding another slip.

Wish me luck!

Corliss

[jlray 0]

I think it's important to remember that Low Carb doesn't mean No Carb. I think that's a big misconception.

Also, from my reading, I've learned there was an earlier 1980's version of Atkins that was more restrictive of carbs. The newer books and research from ANA allow more carbs in the diet, and actually encourage a certain amount of good carbs from good nutritional sources, i.e., vegetables, nuts, berries, etc.

[keithf 2]

I just think use your brain! If low carbing worked, it would have taken off in the 60's and 70's and nobody would be fat. But nobody can LIVE that way for decades on end, its ridiculous.

Bull.. Plenty have been doing so successfully. It's just "difficult" because *everybody else* keeps pushing them, thanks to lobbyists. The same "common sense" that said the world is flat and the only thing you need to lose weight is obey Oprah and go to Weight Watchers -- enough of this surgery crap! -- has continuously worked to slander low-carb research to the point of engendering an environment hostile to getting folks clean of the junk.

Use your brain: If you take someone addicted to drugs, get them clean, and then toss them into drug heaven, of course they'll have a hard time reverting. The same goes for food, the same goes for starch and sugar -- the very set of carbohydrates that the low-carb regimens are trying to avoid.

I have canines. The fact is our species developed without agriculture -- agriculture is a recent phenomenon. We developed eating meat, with a few wild plants (not grown on -- or even adapted to! -- farms) thrown in. That is what our bodies expect of us, just as vegan kibble is not expected by the bodies of cats and dogs.

I do quite well on about 45g carb/day. I'm nearly done for this day's eating and I'm actually around 28g so far; on a binge day where I have some mashed potatoes, I might get in about 60g. This is much lower the several-hundred recommended for my so-called "health". I certainly don't appear to need carbohydrates to live. My brain is certainly functioning *quite* well getting its energy from elsewhere. This claim that I need carbohydrates to live is pure and total, unmitigated lie, promulgated by an industry which stands to lose if people get off them, and perpetuated by an unwitting society of addicts.

I know exactly where their recommendations got me when I was 220# (answer, a 130# weight gain), and I know exactly why my doc's pleased with my better-than-target weight loss. I also know why it is I don't seem to have problems with cravings for pizza or sub sandwiches or rice or Pasta -- it's an addiction, just as you would call food an addiction. Some of us have simply gotten clean of it.

Just as I'm sure others wouldn't appreciate me pushing a buffet table full of their favorite foods from the past into their face, I know *I* would appreciate it if folks didn't try pushing them back on me, and I'm sure others would appreciate the same.

[Corliss 0]

Bull.. Plenty have been doing so successfully. It's just "difficult" because *everybody else* keeps pushing them, thanks to lobbyists. The same "common sense" that said the world is flat and the only thing you need to lose weight is obey Oprah and go to Weight Watchers -- enough of this surgery crap! -- has continuously worked to slander low-carb research to the point of engendering an environment hostile to getting folks clean of the junk.

Just as I'm sure others wouldn't appreciate me pushing a buffet table full of their favorite foods from the past into their face, I know *I* would appreciate it if folks didn't try pushing them back on me, and I'm sure others would appreciate the same.

Yes, it amazes me that people can continue to debase this approach to eating and health despite strong evidence both scientific and anecdotal that it works! All the time that I was loosing wt. and doing my labs long before I knew of or considered the lapband, my "friends" kept telling me, "you can't loose wt. like that, you are gonna get sick." I would show them the labs and the wt loss was obvious and all I got was puzzled looks! Fact is the larger majority of the American dieters have followed the "healthy low fat diets" and have also become fatter and fatter. It is almost like people say "don't bother me with evidence to the contrary, I am gonna believe wha I want to believe."

Corliss:thumbup:

[thebionicbroad 0]

Thank you, Keithf and Corliss. I am also a permanent low-carber, eat fewer than 30 grams a day, and stick with Atkins '72. I eat cream, butter, lard, duck fat, bacon grease, etc., and my lipid panel is better than it's ever been (HDL 85, trigs 77). I love it when people think that our kidneys are going to explode in a fountain of saturated fat, which, by the way, is essential for health and tasty, to boot. And as you said, there's so much documented and valid research out there showing the efficacy of the low-carb lifestyle that there's no excuse for anyone to be so vehemently antagonistic. Well, willful ignorance, maybe?

[elcee 3,340]

I have so many books , all based on scientific research , telling me that the particular diet they are promoting is THE ONE.

But of course none of them are.What Jacqui has said is so true.

This believing any one diet plan can save you, just by avoiding certain foods is sheer fantasy. You just have to eat less and not eat crap.

It's all about balance. Totally excluding whole food groups and overeating others is not healthy and is extremely difficult to follow for life. Starting to eat food that our great grandparents would recognise as food would go a long way to solving a lot of problems. Yes they had overweight people in those days but far fewer and they weren't as overweight as they are now.

For every scientific study that argues and proves a point there is one that contradicts it.

How about some of the scientifically proven facts and theories from previous years.eg

Acid Rain

Babies should not sleep on their backs as they will choke.They should be put on their stomach, then it was their side, now it is their back as this apparently helps prevents SIDS.

Solids should be introduced to babies at 6 weeks, currently I think it is 6 months.

There used to be a go to work on an egg campaign , then eating more than 2 eggs per week was bad for you and now apparently we can eat them every day again.

I could go on and on and on.

I am just waiting for them to finally admit that man made global warming is not true. We have it shoved down our throats all the time but a lot of the so called scientifically proven facts regarding global warming are not true/haven't been proven.

Oh and just to get really controversial I have read some really interesting studies from some esteemed scientists that say that raised cholesterol is not related to heart disease. That the cholesterol myth was invented by the drug companies so that they can sell their drugs to a huge percentage of the population on an ongoing basis!

[Jachut 487]

Exactly. Its not a case of willful ignorance, because I certainly dont deny people get good results with low carb. Its a case of not being gullible enough to believe it all, that THIS time they've got it right.

But its also a case of well, so what if your blood lipid profile is great?How's your bowels for example. Not much point of having a great lipid profile if you die of bowel cancer from your totally animal based diet. Just the same as with high carb low fat, its not much good keeping your bowels healthy and giving yourself diabetes in the process.

I reckon keep an open mind, be moderate about what you choose, whichever side of the fence you fall on, becuase exactly like sleeping babies on their backs, you'll be believing something else totally and passionately in another few years time.

I dont totally believe in global warming either, for the record, lol.

[elcee 3,340]

I dont totally believe in global warming either, for the record, lol.

That's fantastic - I'm not alone. Yay!

[JENNIFER7375 3]

I've done Atkins more than once and had good success with it. So have tons of people I know. But the problem Is that no one ever sustains it. And yes there may be a small percentage of people who maintain weight loss from low carb but I'd day 90% of people who I've known that did could not sustain the weight loss. I know every time I and most others usually gain back plus some on it. The problem with low carb isn't whether or not you can lose on it, it's proven that you can. The problem Is that the vast majority people find it impossible to maintain that diet forever. I can probably atttribute the last 20 pounds or so I gained to yo-yoing on and off low carb. So for a lot of us that do low carbs the end result is ending up heavier than we were before we did it.

[stateofzen 46]

No diet, alone, is successful at long term weight loss (for 98% of people, anyway). That's why we're all getting/have gotten bands. I think we need to keep this in mind as we bicker about low carb.

Atkins-based induction led me to lose 15 lbs in 2 weeks in May. After 2 weeks, I started to eat in more moderation and took off an additional 5 pounds. Now I'm kick-starting myself with another 2 weeks because I found myself starting down the fast-food, ice cream road again and though I hadn't gained any yet, we all know that was just around the corner. Since I want to make some real changes in how I look at food before I get the band so as not to go through the process only to fail, I'm trying to find this elusive land of moderation and low-carb is helping me do that. That's me-- it won't work for everyone. I just hate all of the tearing down that goes on about what the right diet is when there is no one right way of eating.

Funny aside-- when I tell people I'm doing low-carb, I get lectures about how unhealthy that is (seriously, I have). But when I tell people I'm doing "no sugar, no starch", they pat me on the back for my healthy decisions.

[Corliss 0]

Funny aside-- when I tell people I'm doing low-carb, I get lectures about how unhealthy that is (seriously, I have). But when I tell people I'm doing "no sugar, no starch", they pat me on the back for my healthy decisions.

Ain't it Amazin'???? LOL!

Corliss:lol:

Edited September 7, 2009 by Corliss

[Corliss 0]

So many people prefer not to be bothered with evidence to the contrary of what they believe and hold dear. Like any diet the Atkins will not work if you don't do it. There are loads of people on my Low Carb lists through Yahoo that are maintaining for years after loosing 50 plus pounds with Atkins without a lap band. I personally am not one who can maintain, but lets see, I didn't maintain with weight watchers, nutri system or diet pills either. I even gained wt on the mediteranian diet as much as I loved it!

I have the band to minimize the damage that I do when I am not making good choices whether they be bandster reccomendations, OA food plan, Low Carb food plan or Weight Watchers. I find that the Atkins way of eating which is very similiar to the OA grey sheet to be really effective for wt loss. I think all of us who are in need of a band, just muddle through this the best that we can, but many would like to see ourselves as successful dieters and hold our own diets as better than someone elses, where the truth is the band is the key! Very few here would be successful in keeping it off if not for our tool.

I know of only one person on all the boards I am on who has successfully kept her wt. off after band removal, without some revision to another surgery. She is the exception. I personally have experienced a band loss and I am in touch with dozens of others who have and we all experienced wt gain with that one happy exception. Atkins can do wonders for dropping a significant amount quickly and I am all for using it if it works for you. If not, why whine and get nasty about it....if you don't want to do it then for goodness sake, don't do it, but stop the yaya!

Corliss

[jms462001 9]

No diet, alone, is successful at long term weight loss (for 98% of people, anyway). That's why we're all getting/have gotten bands. I think we need to keep this in mind as we bicker about low carb.

Atkins-based induction led me to lose 15 lbs in 2 weeks in May. After 2 weeks, I started to eat in more moderation and took off an additional 5 pounds. Now I'm kick-starting myself with another 2 weeks because I found myself starting down the fast-food, ice cream road again and though I hadn't gained any yet, we all know that was just around the corner. Since I want to make some real changes in how I look at food before I get the band so as not to go through the process only to fail, I'm trying to find this elusive land of moderation and low-carb is helping me do that. That's me-- it won't work for everyone. I just hate all of the tearing down that goes on about what the right diet is when there is no one right way of eating.

Funny aside-- when I tell people I'm doing low-carb, I get lectures about how unhealthy that is (seriously, I have). But when I tell people I'm doing "no sugar, no starch", they pat me on the back for my healthy decisions.

Two Dr's who work together did my surgery. One has the lapband himself and is all about low carb. He tells his patients to eat Protein and only vegetables that grow above the ground while in the weight loss process. The clinic's nut is more for a balanced diet with all natural foods cooked at home, Protein first, veggies, then whole grains or fruit if still hungry.

I stayed on Atkins about 5 yrs after losing 50 pounds and only got off it after being put on a med that caused extreme carb cravings. And, yes, the weight comes back on quickly. The secret is a happy balance. Low carb will get you to your weight loss goal quicker if you are like most obese people whose bodies do not metabolize carbs well. Protein keeps us full longer and we eat less cals. Once away from carbs for awhile we stop craving sugar and processed foods.

I agree that a meat based high fat diet cannot be healthy for life. I hope to get to my goal and incorporate lots of fresh fruits and veggies into my diets along with a small amt of occasional whole grain foods. But I know I have to be very careful with whole grains because for me they can be a big problem.

It's the junk America eats that I think everyone has to agree, regardless of what type of diet you think is best for the body, is responsible for all the disease and obesity problems in this country. We are bombarded with it literally everywhere we turn. I don't think anyone is saying that any of the food groups in their untouched form are bad for us!

Edited September 14, 2009 by jms462001

[MizPeppy 3]

Jachut - I love your raves. You give an intelligent point of view that I respect.

Edited October 5, 2009 by MizPeppy
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