Low Carb is High Dumb

Low carbohydrate diets are now the craze in the U.S.A. Fast food
stores even offer hamburgers in lettuce rather than in buns
(still with the fats of meat and sauces). Breads and pastries
modified for lower carbohydrates are now making fortunes for
suppliers. “Low carb salads”, still drenched with high fat
dressings, are offered for “dieting.”

So what?

This is a costly, stupid, perhaps health threatening fad.

When I was growing up, I did not understand that biblical
quotation of “Man does not live by bread alone”, attributed to
Moses (old testament, torah) and Jesus (new testament). Well, I
understood that the message was meant to be “People have
spiritual as well as physical needs.” But I had no idea how
people could live very long on bread. At that time, I was used
to spongy white bread with no character.

Somewhere along the way, I learned about whole grain breads, and
how peasants through the centuries had lived mostly on dark
breads that Marie Antoinnette would have rejected, with
occasional fortifications of cheese, eggs, sometimes meat.
Peasants tended to eat vegetables, but knights and nobles often
dismissed such as “farmers’ fare”, preferring lots of meat,
alcoholic beverages, pastries. Few people lived long in those
days, so statistical studies of life span versus diet were not
performed. (Statistics were not well known.)

So I read up on bread recipes, found a few health gurus who
argued for blends of whole grain wheat, cornmeal, rye, and soy
flour. A fairly recent development is triticale, a long sought
hybrid of wheat and rye. Why these blends? It turns out that
grains and legumes can provide all the balanced protein that we
need, without meat. Verrrry interesting! Also, such blends
contain valuable dietary fiber.

The prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread”, is now
explained. Properly made, bread really can be “the staff of
life.”

I have learned to love Asian foods that make heavy use of soy
beans, such as tempeh and tofu with noodles and stir fry
vegetables. I usually am turned off by soy based foods that
pretend to be something else, such as soy burgers, soy cutlets,
soy cheeses. In fact, the fake foods not only can taste far from
real, but those which contain Hydrolyzed Plant Protein (HP)
inflame my tongue and cause me anxiety, just as foods with a lot
of Monosodium Glutamate (MSG).

Side observation: a chunk of land producing balanced protein
from grains and legumes can support about 20 times as many
people as the same land producing four legged meats. Oh, and the
people getting most of their proteins and calories from plant
sources are far less likely to have heart attacks, strokes,
cancers, et cetera, than the big meat eaters.

I have written elsewhere that selecting sensible foods means one
never has to count calories. I’ll go further and say that most
carbohydrate restrictions are dumb.

Here are the only carbohydrate restrictions I recommend. • all
refined sugars (cane, beet, high fructose corn syrup, sorghum
molasses, maple syrup, etc.) • beer in large quantities •
anything made from white flour, even if “enriched”

If you have a craving for sweets that you just can’t break
(which I don’t belive), learn how fruits and nuts together can
taste very sweet. Also, the unsaturated fat in the nuts (or
edible seeds, such as sunflower) will satisfy hunger with no
risk to the arteries. My favorite is raisins and almonds,
perhaps with some fresh red delicious apple slices.

Pasta, preferably made from whole grains, is healthful, if not
served with lots of cheese, oil, sauces which contain oil,
sugar, cheese. Noodles with little meat is a main menu item in
the Orient.

Oh, about carbohydrates in potatoes: they are harmless if you
don’t add butter, margarine, fat from frying, sour cream for
topping, and other insults to a great food. People in parts of
Central and South America eat little more than potatoes of
traditional breeds.

** Diet with FACTS, not MYTHS. **

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