Opinion: I eat my (low carb) words - thin people are more intelligent than fatties

Times Online (UK) ^ | January 2, 2004 | Stephen Pollard

[SamAdams76]

Next time you see a baker begging in the street, feel free to blame people like me for his plight. It seems that sales of bread have fallen so sharply in the US as a result of the spread of the Atkins diet — and what happens there soon follows here — that bakers are pondering a bleak future. One, Sara Lee, is attempting to revive its fortunes with a low-carbohydrate brand — Delightful Bakery Breads — which will go on sale next week; another large company will follow suit in May. Low-carb bread may sound like an absurdly contradictory invention, but I have a pretty good idea what it will be like, since I have already tried low-carb muffins, chocolate cake, crisps, chocolate and breakfast snacks. They have one thing in common. They all taste like ground cardboard.

I’ve eaten them because I am a convert to the low-carb, high-fat Atkins diet. This means I am also a turncoat. Last year, I wrote on these pages — in response to a report which claimed to find that fatties are thicker than stick insects — that “I’m fat, I’m thick and I’m proud.” Fine in theory, perhaps. But it turned out to be a lie. Soon afterwards, I started dieting.

So much for being fat and proud. I plead just one factor in mitigation. Take a look at the picture next to these words. See what I mean? I think the word is “jowly”. Less diplomatic souls might say “porker”.

Let’s make a deal. If you have the heart to forgive me my slide from porker to porkies, then I won’t mention if you, too, need to follow that January tradition and go on a diet. As millions look in the mirror this morning after the Christmas binge, my message is simple: it’s a doddle. Within a fortnight of starting, even I had lost 5lb. Five months on and I have lost more than three stone — with more to come. For the first time ever, I’m on a diet and don ’t have constant hunger pangs. I’m eating plentifully and yet the weight is cascading off.

I’ve noticed a common reaction from people I meet. Some are fascinated and want to know all the details. But quite a few are, well, angry. They seem somehow put out that I am losing my jowls so easily and so enjoyably.

I’m now used to the looks of admiration and surprise at my success turning, when I mention Atkins, to sneering. It’s usually followed by a variation on the theme of “well, it isn’t a proper diet”, as if the only acceptable form of weight loss is one which involves much suffering (let’s leave aside the low-carb muffins for a moment).

If these people themselves were fat I could understand their attitude, but my fat friends are generally hugely supportive. No, it’s normal-size people who seem affronted. It’s also an exclusively male phenomenon. Neither I, nor anyone I know following this diet, has ever had such a response from a woman.

One newspaper diary column became mildly obsessed — and rather offended — by my weight loss, suggesting that its readers send me “gifts of stollen and mince pies” for Christmas.

The writer wasn’t to know that I had already been allowing myself small periods off the diet anyway. I spent last week in Vienna, where it would have been a crime not to eat cake, and stuffed every carb I could find down my throat. But the more potatoes, chocolate and bread I put away, the hungrier I felt. Within a day back on the wagon my appetite had shrunk again and I’m finding it as easy as ever to stick to the diet.

Now that the weight is dropping off, I’ll happily endorse the fathead report which so annoyed me last year. It wasn’t specific about the IQ points lost per pound gained, nor did it say if it worked in reverse.But that’s an assumption I’m prepared, for the good of mankind, to make. And since I’ve lost 45lb, I must have put on quite a few IQ points. So if you have any tricky personal problems that need solving or any philosophical dilemmas which need unravelling, just get started on Atkins — or ask me to apply my now enormous, lean, honed, brain power.

In the gym, I try to lift the amount of weight I have shed and wonder how I avoided a heart attack. So yes, this year I’m now an evangelist for weight loss. Call me a turncoat if you want. I don’t care. I feel better than I can ever remember before. If only I could so easily shed those self-interested charlatans and nutritionists who would stop me and others from losing weight and enjoying it.

[SamAdams76]

I’m now used to the looks of admiration and surprise at my success turning, when I mention Atkins, to sneering. It’s usually followed by a variation on the theme of “well, it isn’t a proper diet”, as if the only acceptable form of weight loss is one which involves much suffering (let’s leave aside the low-carb muffins for a moment).

That was the reaction I had also to my 100+ weight loss over the past year. Some were very happy for me but some were "very upset" because I was damaging my health over this very "unhealthy diet." Despite the fact that I was walking 5-7 miles (or more) every single day and that I felt like I was in my 20s again (I am 41 years old).

This low-carb (I call it normal-carb) way of eating changed my entire life. It was not that fat that was making me fat but the carbs.

[Support Free Republic]

Rank	Location	Receipts	Donors/Avg		Freepers/Avg		Monthlies
24	Indiana	205.00	6	34.17	275	0.75	80.00	6

Thanks for donating to Free Republic!

Move your locale up the leaderboard!

[cyborg]

awesome thread... I am getting back with Atkins because it works. Whoever said it wasn't healthy must be jealous and fat. Some people rather be sloppy and ugly than slim and healthy.

[wizardoz]

I've dropped 25 lbs on Atkins. It's funny how people's reaction, when I answer the question "How?" turns from "Wow! to "oh..."

[bob_esb]

wow - how long have you been on this program? Do you follow the program absolutely? Do you ever slip off, and how do you get back on track?

[Billthedrill]

My congratulations. I have seen too many of my friends who consider themselves overweight (some of whom weren't, IMHO) torture themselves with dietary obsessions, and I can't really criticize because they are, at least, taking control of their lives instead of whining that it's the fast food industry's fault or their genes's fault or whatever. But good Lord, they do suffer, and it behooves their skinnier counterparts not to dismiss it as a bunch of fatties getting what they somehow deserve. And believe me, there's an element of that in it.

Hang in there. I'll be risking Mad Cow disease myself in another few minutes...

[JRandomFreeper]

FoodTV is doing a special on low-carb diets. As a culinary professional, I support my clientele eating fewer highly processed carbs. Although, bread is good, if made correctly, with a long, cool, proofing time, and moderation is observed.

/john

[11B3]

I'm turning to the diet as well. (At 42, and looking to lose 20-30 pounds.) Congrats on your loss - that's excellent.

[11B3]

One question about the diet: I can't imagine getting by without the caffeine. Is there a way to stay on the plan with that addition? (Or should I say addiction?)

[SamAdams76]

Some people just can't accept the fact that meat, eggs, cheese and nuts are actually good for your (as well as vegetables, berries, cheese and olive oil). They are brainwashed into thinking that the traditional low-fat diet is the only way to go.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Coffee is banned?

[cyborg]

I agree wholeheartedly. Also who said one can't exercise when on Atkins? I'm giving myself three months since they say you need three months committment for something to work.

They'd rather see teens have their stomachs stapled than go on Atkins and exercise.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Can you actually wolf down a whole can of nuts if you wish on this diet?

[annyokie]

I app;aud you for your efforts, Sam, but it truly has nothing to do with intelligence.

I know many skinny folk who are dumber than a sack of hammers.

[cyborg]

BTW, I read a lot of british editions of fashion mags and the Atkins diet is not as popular there. I think it's because vegetarian/vegan PETA type groups are very active there.

[SamAdams76]

I went on it last April 1. Mind you, I was a critic here of the low-carb diet and took a lot of grief for it during 2002 and some of 2003. Finally I decided to give it a try myself. I have been fat for most of my adult life and tried the traditional "low-fat" diet several times and attributed my failure for a lack of willpower on my part. I was just so damn hungry during those low-fat diets that I always gave in and gained back all my weight and then some.

Well on the low-carb (I prefer to call it normal-carb) diet, it was so easy to stick to it because I was never hungry. Also, the diet gave me the energy to sustain in intensive exercise program that continues to this day (and I hope for life). I walk briskly several miles per day and I look forward to those daily walks - in all sorts of weather.

[cyborg]

I drink lots of coffee :-) I just don't use a lot of milk or I'll use non dairy creamer that's low carb and sugar substitute like splenda

[squidly]

More than one way to skin a cat. There are healthier weight loss diets than Atkins IMO, but I'm not on some anti-Atkins crusade.

Exercise is key with or without a diet.

[SamAdams76]

I used to be a big coffee drinker (3-5 cups a day) but gave it up entirely during the past summer with no difficulty. However, during the cold weather, my taste for coffee resumed and I now drink two cups a day (flavored with cream and Splenda). This has not been a detriment to my weight loss. I expect to give up coffee once again when the warmer weather returns.

[MediaMole]

Dr. Atkins didn't like caffeine, but I have lost 40 pounds on Atkins while continuing to drink my 6+ cups of coffee a day.

Just make sure you drink plenty of water. Coffee and soda does not cut it when it comes to hydration.