Peer Trainer has an interesting article this week about low-carb diets and whether or not they work. I've wanted to write about low-carb diets for a while because since I switched to a plant-based diet Jan. 1, I've suddenly found myself on the front lines of the war against carbs. When people find out that I freely eat sweet potatoes, brown rice and bananas, they are incredulous and suspicious. Even though these foods have been part of the human diet for centuries, right now, in the midst of the obesity epidemic, most people put a simple 160-calorie white potato in the same category as a 260-calorie glazed donut. I was one of those people until I did a whole foods cleanse last summer, ate unrefined carbs freely, and lost 12 pounds in a week. That's when I realized that I'd been outsmarted. That I'd outsmarted myself.
We outsmart ourselves when we mistake the details for the big picture. It's like not seeing the forest for the trees, except you convince yourself that a single tree is the same thing as the forest. It's so easy in our information-rich society to outsmart ourselves. An intriguing detail comes to light, and we allow it to turn our entire understanding of a topic on its head.
As we pick apart and try to solve the obesity epidemic, we continually outsmart ourselves. One day calories are all that really matters, the next day it's fat, then it's carbs, then fiber. Suddenly it seems reasonable to view a banana as the worst thing you could ever eat while spraying fat-free butter spray on a rice cake for your afternoon snack. Or, worse yet, picking up a bag of pork rinds. The focus on macronutrients, that is carbs, protein and fat, has overshadowed everything else about food. Micronutrients have become so misunderstood that fortified granola bars can seem like a good replacement for an apple a day. After all, they don't go bad and kids like them, right?
This madness is why I will never go on another low-carb diet or worry about carbs again. Depriving myself of any unrefined plant food just because of its carb count doesn't make sense to me anymore. If it grows in the ground or on a tree and hasn't been refined or made "better" with chemicals, then I definitely want to eat it, regardless of its sugar or fat content. I mean, are gorillas worrying about carbs? Can you think of any species that eats primarily fruits and leaves that is having a problem with diabetes or obesity? No, in the natural world, all that matters is whether a food is colorful, sweet and juicy.
I can no longer think of food as portions of fat, carbs and protein that add up to a certain number of calories. Food is either nutritious, ie providing nutrients, or its not. This morning, like most mornings, I had a big bowl for breakfast. With grains, three fruits, plus a little dried fruit and nuts, this dish would terrify most dieters I know. Just out of curiosity, I added it up and one bowl is 667 calories, more than 100 carbs and less than 20 grams of protein. But after I eat it, I feel fantastic. I have a crazy energy buzz, which feels very different from a sugar high, and I almost always have to remind myself to eat lunch four hours later. I've also lost 10 lbs this month. So while most diet coaches would advise me to ditch my big bowl for an egg-white omlette and a sensible portion of fruit like half a grapefruit, I refuse to be outsmarted anymore.
Yours in good health,
Summer
We outsmart ourselves when we mistake the details for the big picture. It's like not seeing the forest for the trees, except you convince yourself that a single tree is the same thing as the forest. It's so easy in our information-rich society to outsmart ourselves. An intriguing detail comes to light, and we allow it to turn our entire understanding of a topic on its head.
As we pick apart and try to solve the obesity epidemic, we continually outsmart ourselves. One day calories are all that really matters, the next day it's fat, then it's carbs, then fiber. Suddenly it seems reasonable to view a banana as the worst thing you could ever eat while spraying fat-free butter spray on a rice cake for your afternoon snack. Or, worse yet, picking up a bag of pork rinds. The focus on macronutrients, that is carbs, protein and fat, has overshadowed everything else about food. Micronutrients have become so misunderstood that fortified granola bars can seem like a good replacement for an apple a day. After all, they don't go bad and kids like them, right?
This madness is why I will never go on another low-carb diet or worry about carbs again. Depriving myself of any unrefined plant food just because of its carb count doesn't make sense to me anymore. If it grows in the ground or on a tree and hasn't been refined or made "better" with chemicals, then I definitely want to eat it, regardless of its sugar or fat content. I mean, are gorillas worrying about carbs? Can you think of any species that eats primarily fruits and leaves that is having a problem with diabetes or obesity? No, in the natural world, all that matters is whether a food is colorful, sweet and juicy.
I can no longer think of food as portions of fat, carbs and protein that add up to a certain number of calories. Food is either nutritious, ie providing nutrients, or its not. This morning, like most mornings, I had a big bowl for breakfast. With grains, three fruits, plus a little dried fruit and nuts, this dish would terrify most dieters I know. Just out of curiosity, I added it up and one bowl is 667 calories, more than 100 carbs and less than 20 grams of protein. But after I eat it, I feel fantastic. I have a crazy energy buzz, which feels very different from a sugar high, and I almost always have to remind myself to eat lunch four hours later. I've also lost 10 lbs this month. So while most diet coaches would advise me to ditch my big bowl for an egg-white omlette and a sensible portion of fruit like half a grapefruit, I refuse to be outsmarted anymore.
Yours in good health,
Summer
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