Lowcarbezine!

Important Point to Ponder

Reader Terri Miyamoto writes:

Dana:

I want to bring to your attention an editorial published in the Newark (NJ) Star Ledger February 13 that I believe deserves some attention. The author is David L. Katz, "associate clinical professor of public health and medicine at Yale University School of Medicine and author of "The Way to Eat" (Sourcebooks 2002). His essay first appeared in the Hartford Courant."

Dr. Katz makes excellent points in this essay, essentially pointing out how market demand drives the foods available to us in stores, and arguing that if we, as consumers, demanded more healthy food choices we would get them. The point I believe your readers should contemplate is in this paragraph:

"'When we focused solely on dietary fat, the food industry gave us more calories in the form of Snackwell cookies and the like. Of course, we kept gaining weight. We are now inviting those same, eager-to-please food manufacturers to serve up excess calories in low-carb rather than low-fat packages. It is just a matter of time before we can cut the carbs and keep the calories, too. So long, weight loss."

I think he is right on target. Keep encouraging your readers to save the low-carb, sweet specialties for occasional use. We low-carbers have to focus on healthy, simple meats, veggies and fruits. I believe we also have to anticipate the day when "low carb" will be ridiculed, because so many people try it without understanding it, and fail.

Thanks for your newsletter. I always enjoy it. I started Atkins a year ago and have lost 90 pounds, have 10 more to go to get to my goal. Plus low-carb helps control my skinny husband's diabetes. We're convinced, but I can easily get sucked into the low-carb chocolates and mousses, even though I can see from the scale that they affect my weight loss if I do more than a tiny bit!

Thank you, Terri, for bringing this up. Yes, I am seeing the Snackwellification of the low carbohydrate diet, and I do not think it bodes well for people's success. I was reminded of the problem yet again when, after my article on brown bag lunches in the last issue of Lowcarbezine!, one reader wrote to say that with low carb bread on the market now, we could all start taking sandwiches for lunch again. While I have no problem with the occasional low carb sandwich - I like a good grilled cheese myself from time to time - I think it is, for most of us, a bad idea to start eating low carb bread - or low carb pasta, or low carb cookies, or low carb cereal, or low carb candy, or low carb chips - as daily staples of our diets.

The "low carb bread" I find hereabouts generally has at least 5 grams per slice. That's 10 grams in a two-slice sandwich. For 10 grams, I could have a very big salad instead, and it would be both more nutritious and more filling than those two slices of bread, and likely cheaper. It would also be free of soy, an ingredient I try to limit in my diet, but that is very common in low carb specialty products.

So I will repeat what is becoming my constant refrain: Do not make low carb specialty foods a major part of your low carbohydrate diet. Do not try to make your low carbohydrate diet look like your old, high carb diet, by simply swapping high carb processed foods for low carb processed foods.

Always, always, always, the heart and soul of a low carb diet should be meat, fish, poultry, eggs, cheese, nuts, seeds, vegetables, low sugar fruits, and healthy fats, not packaged low carb stuff designed to cash in on the popularity of the diet. Low carb specialty products should be relegated to a support position - as occasional treats or to fight cravings.

Be aware that I have heard from more than one person who has found that so long as they stick to whole, unprocessed low carb foods, they lose weight, but when they add the specialty products with any frequency, they stall, or even start to gain.

You have been warned.

Posted by HoldTheToast at February 23, 2004 06:51 PM