The Only Diet That Works

In touch with the ground
I'm on the hunt I'm after you
Smell like I sound I'm lost in a crowd.
And I'm hungry like the wolf.
Straddle the line in discord and rhyme
I'm on the hunt I'm after you.
Mouth is alive with juices like wine
And I'm hungry like the wolf

           Duran Duran 1982

I can't seem to get away from thoughts of food. I grew up in a household where my parents ate healthy and exercised consistently. When I got older I dialed that up a few obsessive levels, working out like a fiend and maybe eating a little too clean. And then I married a professional dietitian. What can you do?

Between the lifestyle and reading a ton on the subject the last 30 years, I've come to a few conclusions. The most important one is that for weight loss, nothing works except low carbs. The good news is that makes it simple, because you can ignore all the other indicators, like fat, calories, etc. The bad news is it’s not an easy diet; I like eating dead animal as much as the next guy, but what I really want is pizza, ice cream, and as much kid’s birthday cake as I can get my hands on.

          The science is pretty simple. When you eat carbohydrates your blood sugar spikes, and insulin is produced to lower the sugar levels. The insulin converts into fat in your body. The evidence is overwhelming that as our carbohydrate/sugar level has increased, obesity has skyrocketed.  Diabetes was virtually nonexistent 100 years ago, prior to the prevalence of processed carb-loaded foods and the increase in sugar consumption.  Even mainstream dieticians, with whom I have very little nice things to say about, are starting to push a slightly less carb dominated diet.

          When the Atkins craze caught fire in the 90s, I thought this was the one diet that would stick because, well, it works. It didn't and I think there are three main reasons for this. 1^st, as I said before, carbs, especially the sweet ones, just taste better than protein. 2^nd, the diet is totally counterintuitive to most people. It logically make sense that if you lower your intake of fat you will be less fat, and if you eat foods high in fat you will get fat, right? Except for the fact that it's not true.

Lastly, people misunderstood the diet. They just assumed that it required a permanent state of not eating any carbs, when it really called for a very short period of no carbs and a permanent state of reduced carbs. Not eating any carbohydratess for long stretches is impossible. If you want to see something funny, watch a bodybuilder right before a contest, after they've done three days of what they call “carb depleting”. They're basically incoherent. Please don't ask me how I know this.

          Why does reducing the consumption of carbs drop the pounds? Who knows? The most logical answer that I've heard is that early humans were hunter/gatherers, spending their time eating protein-rich animals and fish that they killed. Evolution took care of the rest, and over time this diet became the most efficient one. Whatever the reason, it works.

          Have a good night everyone. I'm gonna go grab a steak.

           JR