Thanks Jimmy! Glad to be here!

The way I figure it, more than anything it's just ignorance! After all, why should they do any research when it's common knowledge that Atkins dieters eat 5 double bacon cheeseburgers a day with no bun and a dozen eggs and drink gallons of cream and snack on sticks of butter, but a green bean is like Kryptonite? ;-)

There is SO SO SO much misinformation out there about what Atkins and lowcarbing in general is (and what it is not), that's why it's so important that those of us who really know what it's all about shout it from the mountaintop. :-)

Nikki

I think it'll come around...in a lot of ways the low-carb craze of a few years back brought low-carb into the mainstream. Although Atkins and its cousins are still generally considered extreme, check out how much stuff out there is now "reduced sugar" or "whole grain" or "sweetened with Splenda". And everyone pretty much agrees now that there is WAAAAAAAAAY too much sugar and refined carbohydrate in the standard American diet!!! That's a start!

Even those awful "Atkins dieters eat unlimited amounts of fat while severely restricting veggies" headlines are gradually dying out, and being replaced by more and more research that says that a low-carb diet actually is pretty good for you, or that it at least won't give you a heart attack. And when's the last time we heard from any of the Jody Gorrans of the world, suing over the heart disease that they supposedly got from doing Atkins? Where are the dire warnings of imminent death from exploding kidneys? Why aren't dialysis centers brimming over with low-carb kidney casualties? More and more we hear about people whose type 2 diabetes is completely controlled on a low-carb diet.

Yessir, I think that the evidence will become harder and harder to deny, and while the USDA may never invert their blasted food pyramid, I think that as more long-term research on low-carb diets becomes available, more people will start to gravitate in that direction.

LOL yeah that's about the way of it! :-D

Tecnically that is right for the induction period.

But as you say they ignore the fact that meat and protein are limiting, especially in the absence of carbs!!


I find that carbs in my diet, especially refined ramp up my appetite to the extreme!

Amen to that Dave. Fat & protein consumption are self limiting. You eat too much, your body will let you know quickly. Eat too many carbs and you don't feel it until much later. When I was trying to follow the low fat, high carb dogma, I suffered from insatiable cravings and my attempt to limit calories failed. Now that I restrict carbs and don't worry about fat & protein, I eat less naturally. This supposed free-for-all really enables us to control our eating better!!!


Also, I saw a debate between Gary Taubes, Dean Ornish, and someone from the AHA. I lost count of how many times Ornish mentioned bacon. Seems that low carb is all about bacon. Whoa, I often go days or even weeks without eating bacon. Guess I'm not a good low carber.


It's a long video, but check it out if you're interested:

http://www.charlierose.com/guests/gary-taubes

I didn't really feel that veggies were severely limited at all on Induction, especially since I was eating about 18 of my 20 after-fiber carbs a day from them. I was eating far more real veggies, mostly in place of pasta, potatoes, rice, etc, than I ate before. I've always liked veggies, I was just all too often passing them up in favor of the "high" from various white foods. The Induction list of allowable veggies has pretty much all the veggies I've always eaten...broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, zucchini, yellow squash, spinach, green beans, snow or snap pea pods, just about any lettuce, collards, turnips, turnip greens, onions, green peppers, etc. About the only things missing that I would've classified as a "veggie" before were potatoes and carrots.

Protein and fat are pretty self-limiting, whereas I have always been able to eat tons of refined carbohydrate, and only feel anything like satiety when my stomach hurts from eating way too much. And that's not really satiety, that's physical discomfort!

Nikki

LOL, Violet! That is funny. (I read your other post before this one.) But I bet you are a good low carber anyway. ;-)

I don't eat pork or shellfish either but I love beef, lamb, and poultry. I enjoy poultry much more now that I eat my share of dark meat after all those years of those dry boneless, skinless chicken breasts w/ baby teaspoons of low fat mayo!

I also love kosher fish, especially cod, haddock, flounder, and salmon.

For lunch I had a rib eye with a side of steamed green beans and spinach drenched in extra virgin oil. I'd rather live than diet.

I don't know if this fits your dietary requirements, but I really enjoy Applegate Farms Turkey Bacon and have either it or some sauteed thin-sliced roast beef with my breakfast eggs almost every morning. (Most turkey bacon is gross, imho.)