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Moving to the Dieting Dark Side
I've made a big decision this week, I've decided to go to the dieting dark side.
Seems like there is this big war going on among dieting groups about which is the worst thing for you, fats or sugars. The sugars-so-bad group, which I was a member of, has a philosophy that sugars, and the associated rise in blood glucose levels, over time make a person insulin resistant. There's a lot of science here, but the bottom line is that if you eat sweets, you get fat. They go on to define sweets as things that raise blood sugars, not just sugar itself. So stuff like baked potatoes will getcha worse than a tablespoon of white sugar.
On the other side, weighing in at 200 pounds, is the fats-so-bad group. This group says that if you don't eat fat, you don't get fat. At the mild end of this group they tell you to limit fats to 30% of total calories. On the extreme end, they tell you to limit it to 10%, and that basically means no meats, no dairy, no oils, no fish, no nuts, no olives. Somewhere in between the light and heavy no-fats bunch are the vegetarians, which stay away from animal fats but eat nuts, good oils, and such.
I was firnly in the sugars-are-bad camp for many years, even when I wasn't dieting. I found it was the easiest way to lose weight and keep it off. I had tried the fats-are-bad plan years ago, and it worked okay enough for me too, but I had a hard time sticking to it.
I had chosen my side and was ready for a fight. Then the doctor came in and screwed everything up. Something about my cholesterol being twice what it should be. I demanded a re-test, and still scored high. So I started Googling low-cholesterol diets. Looks like the low cholesterol diets are all fats-are-bad.
So now I'm in a quandry: I really believe that sugars mess up my system. I know this from past experience. But at the same time, I'm forced to eliminate most fats as well from my diet. What is left? Twigs? Pieces of rubber that fall off car tires?
So I'm trying to figure out how to have a low-carb, low-fat diet. I think that just leaves fiber. Wonder how cardboard tastes with a little pepper on it?
We have some lovely chips of rock in the back yard, dear...and then there are the dirt clumps... and of course moss is supposed to be quite tasty;) I think you can do better than cardboard with pepper...really, I do:)
Good article, althogh most people fail in achieving their weightloss goals due to lack of consistency in their diet or exercise plans. I think weightloss requires constant motivation and a group support to be effective in long term despite of all the advices given in such blogs. A good article nonetheless.