Indecisive nutrition 'experts' should leave us alone [Bread will kill you, keep the cows off Atkins]

.thecountrytoday ^ | 11-12-03

[SJackson]

And now, the 2003 Nutritional Villain of the Year is - may I have a drum roll, please! - bread.

That's right, folks, the staff of life turns out to be a stake through your heart, if you read the latest reports. Bread makes you fat, they say.

Bread-phobia appears to be almost entirely due to the Atkins diet and all its low or no-carb permutations that have recently swept the country. The basic idea is that if you eat only meat, dairy products and vegetables you'll feel full and lose weight.

Bread sales across the country are falling like punched-down dough as chubby consumers shy away from carbohydrates. I heard all about this for the second or third time on a radio program on the way to work the other day. They were interviewing bakers who were wondering what to do to revive sales. Maybe they need a bread check-off.

Studies and anecdotal experience show that the Atkins diet works, at least in the short term. Close to home, both my parents lost weight in the first year. In recent months they haven't.

One veterinarian I chatted with about the diet wondered what happens to people's livers when they're on the Atkins diet for long periods of time. He knows what happens to cows that eat too much protein and not enough roughage.

Wasn't it just a few years ago that bread was the culinary darling du jour? But as with so many other foods, fame has proven to be treacherous. Look what happened to eggs, butter, chocolate and red meat. Two or three decades ago the once-beloved egg was suddenly renamed as the great villain, a nasty little thing that raised your cholesterol and gave you heart attacks.

Then real butter came under attack, and we were all supposed to eat margarine. Dairy products in general, once a cornerstone of the nutriiton pyramid, were suddenly discovered to be fattening and bad for you. So much for my childhood instructions to "drink lots of milk for strong bones."

The next victim was red meat. I don't remember exactly what the reasoning was behind that vilification, but we were to substitute with chicken and fish. Chocolate got a nutritional hatchet job for being fattening, probably because we love it so much. But that was then.

Now eggs are OK to eat again, since they're wonderfully complete nutritional packages. Cholesterol evidently has more to do with your genetic inheritance than your diet, though diet is still important for those who need to bring their levels under control.

Butter has been found to be better for your blood vessels than margarine, and red meat is great for adding vitamins and minerals to your diet, especially iron. Chocolate is a mood elevator and teeth protector. I knew all along it made me feel better; now many experts agree.

In the past two years many nutritionists have restored dairy products to a place of honor as the best source of calcium for a calcium defiecient nation. Several recent large studies have also shown that dairy is an aid to weight loss. The calcium and perhaps other components in dairy products have the effect of speeding up the metabolism, so you burn calories faster.

In the 1973 movie "Sleeper," actor Woody Allen played a vegetarian California health-food store owner who is cryogenically frozen and then thawed out 200 years later.

After he's properly re-warmed, his hosts offer him - to his horror - a healthy meal of steak and brownies to restore him to good health.

The scene was hilarious then; now it's spooky because it's coming true.

Of course, not all nutritional experts agree that eggs, meat, milk and butter are good guys again, but the tide has certainly turned.

I have great hopes that in a few years this smear campaign against bread will blow over and carbohydrates will be restored to their proper place in the national diet.

Before nutrition became a polticial issue, grade school students, myself included, were taught a pretty simple, user-friendly program for staying healthy and slim. The gist of it was that everyone should eat three moderate - moederate is a key concept, here - well-balanced meals each day.

Well-balanced meant a combination of meat and dairy, fruits and vegetables, and breads and starches. It did not mean a continuous intake of nutritionally worthless, high-calorie pop, chips and candy.

We were a slimmer nation back then.

Maybe it's not so much what you eat, but how much, and how much you exercise. Not a revolutionary thought, exactly, but one that might be usefully revived from the dustbin of nutritional history.

Ann Hansen covers news in west-central Wisconsin and is the small acreage section editor for The Country Today. She may be reached at shansen@bloomer.net.

[Age of Reason]

Over the last few years, I have wised up about what I eat.

I now look at a food's ingredients, and question everthing.

Before eating anything, I ask myself if a caveman might have eaten anything like it.

If it's too dissimilar, I'll try to find something else to eat.

I've cut out a lot of stuff that other people eat with abandon.

I eat very simply now.

And I drink a LOT of water.

My digestion is now perfect.

It's better than it was when I was eighteen--in fact, it's never been better.

I now realize it's not normal to suddenly get cramps and either run to the bathroom or fight the urge to go.

That all went away after I became careful about what I ate.

[abigailsmybaby]

YOu only completely cut out carbs for the first 2 weeks on the Atkins diet. After that, carbs are added back to your diet gradually. But there are certain carbs that you can't have. Most of them are the starchy variety. Corn, potatoes, bread, anything with flour is a no-no. But you can have sweet potatoes and carrots in small amounts.

[tickles]

You can find this bread in Hy Vee stores to. It's in the organic freezer section.

[RJayneJ]

Is that a health food store? I don't recall ever seeing that name before but that doesn't mean there are none around here, I just don't get out very much.

[tickles]

Hy Vee is a grocery chain in the MN, IA area. In MN they
're in the southern part, not near the cities.

[Nov3]

This bring a a lot to the table.

Yeah stuff that should go in the toilet. It is a bunch of $#!T

[Redwood71]

It's kind of hard to call something $hit when the information is backed by sound organizations like the American Dietetic Association and the American Institute for Cancer Research. There has been good and bad issues with these low-carb high-protein diets and research has been finding more all the time. Don't write it off with foul language until the game is over. It limits your capacity.

[Nov3]

Don't write it off with foul language until the game is over.

The game is over. The food pyramid is DEAD. The American Dietetic Association is a complete joke. It is manifest. People aren't supposed to eat that trash.

[Redwood71]

Then convince me with facts. Who says, and on what information, from where. I provided names and medical organizations to back the information I displayed, show me your leads and theories. 'Cause I said so doesn't tell me anything.

[Nov3]

Redwood,

Do a search on low carb on google with any of the issues raised in your "research". I don't have time to argue each and every fact. I will just say most of the research you have listed is flawed and a little research on your part will prove it.

If you want to eat like a cow continue on. Otherwise READ. I fell for the tripe for years. Thank God my wife brought home Protein Power 7 years ago. It allowed me to look at the other side.

[Redwood71]

I have looked at both sides. I'm a certified trainer, trained at Cooper Institute Hospital in Dallas, Texas. The topics I mentioned I have studied at great length with information from the sources I mentioned along with others. The body needs carbs to run just like a car needs gas. Bad gas makes the car run badly and causes it not to perform at top level. This will cause other problems with the car like going out of time or misfiring. The same thing happens without carbs. The body runs out of energy during extended draw, and there have been numerous problems with stones like was mentioned. The high protein low carb diets are proven to be useful in quick weight loss for a limited time, but, too many times, that is inconsistent as it is very little more than water loss which will return at first few drinks.

I recommend a balanced diet with no less than 50% carbs and preferred 60%. With proper exercise, the carbs will burn and you will feel better. I do not believe in losing weight for anything other than health purposes. It is not how you look, but how you feel and how healthy you are. These adds for washboard abs and shrinking buttocks are a falacy as your genes have a lot to say about your shape.

Don't be fooled like a lot of people with one-size-fits-all books about weight loss that are written to make money and don't tell the whole truth all the time. They are the illusion of health, not the reality. Short term weight loss is not the answer to good health. And these diets can be nothing else but short term as the longer you stay on these diets, the better the chance of the fore mentioned health problems.

Red

[Xenalyte]

So what the author is trying to say, in her own talking-chimp kind of way, is that as science advances, we find out that what we once believed isn't true, and we form new hypotheses?

This wins the Duh of the Day award.

[Xenalyte]

I would add that after three months of lowering my once-considerable carb intake, I am now back in my size 10 clothes. Give me one more month and I'll be an 8 again!

[Teacher317]

Atkins brand bread tastes terrible, but is 3g per slice. Blackberry Farms makes some very good breads at only 6g per slice... worth it in my book!

I lost 46 pounds, mostly due to Atkins (from 230 to 184, for a 5'10" male). It works, if you stick to it for several weeks. I lost 6, 1, 8, 3, 3, and 2 pounds in my first 6 weeks, and 1-2 per week for a month after that.

[Teacher317]

The body runs out of energy during extended draw,

Exactly how often do you see a person who is 50+ pounds overweight in an extended energy draw?!? I didn't start running or working out again until after I lost 25.

If you'd bother to read the Atkins book, you'd see that the whole program is set up to INCREASE carb intake after the "induction" phase to find the level at which you maintain a steady weight. Once I'd lost that 25, and started exercising again, I was back up to about 70g of carbs per day, which is more than adequate for a regular 30-minute workout every other day. Once again, just about every nay-sayer has no clue what the Atkins diet is really about.

[Teacher317]

Good for you!!! I just dropped off about 25 pairs of size 40 pants at Goodwill. My 34's are just a bit loose now, and I'm thinking about trying on some 32's... gotta have one pair of tight jeans! ;^)

Yeah, the health effects of Atkins are FAR worse than the health effects of being 50 pounds overweight! ROFL!!

[Xenalyte]

WOOHOO!!! One big factor is getting rid of all your fat clothes. That way, you don't have the luxury of gaining back the weight, because what WILL you wear if you do?

[Praxeologue]

Nutrition is very simple.

Eat whole grains for carbs, reduce the following as much as possible: fats, sugars, salt, caffeine and alcohol AND exercise regularly. You will lead a longer and happier life.

Atkins diets and all other fads prey upon the weak and gullible.

Stick with the basics.

/didactics

[oldcomputerguy]

Bread is unhealthy,

This is simply reverse hysteria. Bread is not inherently unhealthy. It has to do more with our ability, or current lack thereof, to burn the carbohydrates that bread represents.

Bread became the staff of life when people had very high energy demands and little to eat to fund them. In that regard bread functions as its historic name implies. Our current lack of muscle mass and sedentary lifestyles simply preclude the quantities of bread the we consume. That is the problem. We cannot eat the quantities of bread we consume without a lot more exertion on a regular basis.

[Angry_White_Man_Syndrome]

I started Atkin's in the summer and was down from 260 to 210 at one point. My lax holiday eating has got me back up to 225. At the first of the year I plan on going back on Atkins. While i was on Atkins, i felt great, got a good nights sleep and had plenty of energy. I have noticed since going off for the holidays I'm tired and have problems sleeping. Like most people that bash Atkin's you seem to have no grasp of the way of eating that he called for. You should only get carbs from natural sources ( vegetables ). After the initial weight loss, you find the right amount of carbs to maintain your target weight. He also believed in drinking alot of water and moderate exercise. The increased water intake prevents stones as well as bringing your body into proper hydration. By the way the origins of the food pyramid were founded from a group paid by the wheat and grain producers.