[SamAdams76]

This article fails to make a distinction between sugar and high fructose corn syrup, which is a "cheap" alternative to sugar and found in most processed food products today. High fructose corn syrup is nasty stuff and they seem to put it in everthing these days. But whether you are talking about sugar or HFCS, you are talking carbohydrates. This is what is making America fat (our increasingly sedentary lifestyles only making a bad situation worse).

Sugars are almost always found in processed foods in large quantities. Especially foods that are labeled "low-fat." Having lost 44 pounds since April 1, I have started paying much more attention to food labels. I was surprised, for instance, to find high fructose corn syrup as a major ingredient in even my barbeque sauce. As a result, I have eliminated virtually all processed foods from my diet and this has accelerated my weight loss.

But instead of being obsessed with sugars (carbohydrates), our society is obsessed with fats. It is almost amusing to watch, as I have lost my 44 pounds while having all the things that the "fat" police try to warn us about. Eggs, steaks, pork, sardines, dark chicken meat, etc. I eat all that stuff and I don't bother taking the skin off the chicken or trimming the fat from the beef. I especially don't eat "egg whites." Who the heck came up with the idea that you should discard the best part of the egg? I also use butter instead of margarine and plenty of olive oil, also high in fat.

Now my diet is not the Atkins plan but simply a modified version of it. For example, I will still have rice from time to time and I still have my nightly two beers. But I have cut back on carbs drastically and it has made all the difference. I also walk several miles a day for exercise.

[kaktuskid]

The three reasons why we are fat today...
1. Corn syrup in everything
2. Hydrogenated fats
3. White carbs...flour,white bread

[DAnconia55]

Michelbo Ultra is not beer. :)

[caisson71]

Sugar doesn't make us fat. Fat makes us fat!!

[EggsAckley]

Kudos to you! And you're absolutely right on. Count the carbs. It's much easier than counting calories. I went on a diet like that for a while and lost about 50 pounds, quite easily too. It wasn't a pretty sight to watch me eat a sandwich and then have two pieces of bread left over. LOL!
But that bread is 14 carbs each....I was on a 70 carb max diet and I sure wasn't going to use up my "budget" on two lousy slabs of bread.

You've encouraged me; I'm going to think about going back on that diet.......gotta lose that 50 pounds again. heheheh

[Shooter 2.5]

There's 9 grams of suger in a Burger King Whopper and 35 grams of suger in a milk chocolate Slim-Fast.

Anyone on the Atkin's diet should watch their cholestral. It isn't just fat that kills.

[Dante3]

But it is so tempting to be fat:
No need to exercise.
Eat everything you want to and as much as you want to.
Then sue the grocery store or whoever and become rich.

[Capriole]

A lot of people theorize that America is fat now because of our sedentary lifestyle. But we've been sedentary for as long as I've been alive, which is (I hate to admit it) well over forty years. I remember when I was a kid NOBODY ever jogged; people drove everywhere. They even went for Sunday drives to nowhere as a form of recreation, which is something that is simply not done today, with gasoline pushing two bucks a gallon. They drove to go on vacations and sat on the beach for two weeks. So sedentary living in urban and suburban environments isn't new.

Today millions of people exercise frantically--joining gyms, playing tennis, biking for recreation, buying exercise videos and equipment. They're probably getting more exercise than their parents did in the suburbia of the 1950s or '60s. So why are they fat? Look at their diets. We ate garbage back in the 1950s, too (remember Coke and jello salad, marshmallows, Twinkies?). But now we not only eat huge portions, our portions are that worst of all combinations: carbohydrates AND fats together. This combination is perfect for fueling the muscles of a farmer who is about to spend the day loading hay, but it's disastrous for someone whose evening will be spent surfing the Net. Half an hour with the rowing machine won't work off the Supersize french fries.

Sam, I agree with you again. Carbohydrates are the devil if you're trying to lose weight.

[BlueAngel]

The worse thing about sugar, at least in my case, is that the more I eat of it, the more I want. It can be very addicting.

Once I stay away from it for a few days, I'm okay but if I get into my system again, there goes the diet. Abstinance is the way to go for me.

[McGavin999]

There is a tremendous amount of both salt and sugar in processed foods. By cutting back on carbs, limiting the processed foods you eat, and drinking LOTS of water you'll lose plenty of weight and keep it off.

It's really hard not to give in to the convenience of a drive through from time to time, but if it's a rare occasion it won't hurt.

I think the worst thing that happened to this country is the idiots who came up with the food pyramid. They replaced healthy amounts of fat (via meats and butter) and replaced it with pure carbs.

[rockfish59]

Before he became the famous war photographer, Robert Capa (Not his real name. It was Endre Friedmann), used to mix lots of sugar in water to take away his hunger pangs for the times when he was struggling and poor as a church mouse. His pics of the D-Day landings are the most remembered.

Death in Spanish Civil War (1936)

[rockfish59]

I use the 'sugar in the raw' in my tea and coffee. It doesn't leave the nasty aftertaste of processed sugar.

'Uhhhhh--huh-huh......You're fat!'--(Butthead)

[fortunecookie]

Yes, yes, yes!! High fructose corn syrup and trans fatty acids (like crisco or anything partially hydrogenated) are in everything - cheap, ubiquitous. The Romans were poisoned by their use of lead. These are our poisons. And like a regressive tax, harder on the poor. A little butter, olive oil ,pure sugar or real maple syrup (read some labels, many have mostly corn syrup!) wouldn't be so bad for us in a diet that includes fruits and veggies, lean or mostly lean protein, etc. Jam is mostly corn syrup smeared on bread with peanut butter both containing trans fats and corn syrup, and thats just a 'healthy' lunch! I read every label, still drink soda more than I should, and try to at least cut down on these poisons. And that doesn't even include super refined starches, food colorings and other 'additives'.

[reformed_dem]

I've been on Atkins for just over a week and have lost 8 pounds already. I feel great. The brownies my daughter just baked smell delicious and I am tempted, but I will be strong. ;^)

[muir_redwoods]

Eat less. Eat less of foods that are high in fat and sugar. Eat as much of your food as close to raw as possible, fresh fruit and raw vegetables are perfect. Enjoy meat if you like but watch the fat. Get off your butt and do some real excercise. Hike, don't mosey. Sign up for an aerobic activity, martial arts, callisthenics, running(if you can stand it) but get up and get moving. Drink less alcohol and more water. Believe it or not you can enjoy the effort as well as the results.

[ccmay]

I think my grandma was wise to the Atkins diet before Dr. Atkins himself. She always badmouthed refined sugar and refined flour, but she would happily eat every part of a cow including brains and sweetbreads. Lots of fruit and vegetables, a fair amount of eggs, and moderate milk and cream. I don't remember her cooking noodles or pasta even once. She used sweet-n-low or occasionally honey if something had to be sweetened. She also tended to serve pretty small portions. I didn't like eating at her house, but she lived to be 92 and my grandfather to 98, and neither of them died of a heart attack, so must be something to it...

[MissAmericanPie]

Sugar isn't fattening. If it is why was I a scrawny little runt all my childhood even though I munched on about five candy bars a day?

What makes a person fat are genes that produce too many fat cells, and a person kicking those fat cells into action by doing too much sitting and eating anything and everything.

[tiamat]

I think it has more to do with sitting on our dead bottoms too much and super-sizing evreything.

Tia

[wafflehouse]

Dieters might be surprised to find there is more sugar in a can of strawberry Slim-Fast diet drink than in a quarter cup of M&M candies, and that low-fat and "healthy choice" breakfast bars with fruit filling have as much sugar as chocolate eclairs

WOW! ill stick with M&Ms and chocolate eclairs..

[John Valentine]

Congrats!

You have it right, and you are walking the walk!

I'm trying to do the same thing, but I can't get my wife on board, and she gets offended when I pick and choose what I will eat of the dinner she prepares.

Nevertheless, I will persevere and prevail, and in the end, she will be pleased.

[Wiser now]

Nutrition experts have known for years that excess carbs are metabolized and stored as fat. Yet the American people were told that it is fat that makes us fat, not excessive carbohydrates. The people listened, and they got fatter. And the FDA is still blaming fat and McDonald's! Diabetics are given this information, then told to eat between 6 and 11 servings of complex carbohydrates per day in addition to the carbs in fruit and vegetables. Then the "experts" and your doctor have a hissy fit because you are overweight. I am thinking very seriously about cutting way back on my carb intake. Giving up ice cream is going to be harder than quiting a two pack a day cigarette habit. Then, I at least had a patch!