Re: Responses to Taubes' NYT Article...

[Guest guest]

Your welcome!

Robin

<<Great reading, thanks for posting

Mike>>

[Guest guest]

Ok I understand carbs being a compromise food. However, the

trouble I have, for example is fats fats? We all know the answer is

'No' to that. There is a difference between fats that are good for you

and the ones that are bad for you. Therefore, how can there NOT be a

difference between refined and complex carbs? Perhaps, carbs have the

same reaction in the body, but I personally would rather see someone eat

a complex carb over a refined carb any day. Those refined carbs have to

be more damaging than the complex IMHO. Can one take the rise in

insulin from carbs to the extreme that others have taken to cholesterol

in avoiding certain foods that are actually good for you? I can

certainly understand limiting carbs in comparison to the amount of carbs

recommended by the food pyramid in the SAD. However, if I do eat some

carbs I'd rather they be the complex carbs (prepared properly) and not

the refined ones.

Perhaps I'm missing something here?

Robin

<<I think he (and Taubes and other low-carb advocates) are absolutely

right. People do differ in their ability to handle carbs, including

complex carbs, but I think even complex ones are basically a compromise

food. Per NAPD, people who've eaten healthily all their lives (i.e.

plenty of animal fat and animal proteins) and who come from healthy

stock apparently do OK when some grains are incorporated into their diet

(as long as they're prepared properly and accompanied by loads of fatty

animal foods) but I doubt there are many modern people who could do as

well on such a diet. Perhaps if we all eat well, our great grandchildren

could. Though again, mileage will vary.

- >>

[Guest guest]

> Can one take the rise in insulin from carbs to the extreme that

> others have taken to cholesterol

> in avoiding certain foods that are actually good for you? I can

> certainly understand limiting carbs in comparison to the amount of

> carbs recommended by the food pyramid in the SAD. However, if I

> do eat some carbs I'd rather they be the complex carbs (prepared

> properly) and not the refined ones.

> Perhaps I'm missing something here?

> Robin

I don't think you're missing a thing, Robin. Weston Price found

healthy primitives that had *very* high carb intakes. His swiss

villagers ate mostly fresh milk (high carb) and rye bread (very high

carb *and* fairly high glycemic index). Several of the healthy

primitive groups had quite high carb intakes.

Demonizing carbs is as dangerous a game as demonizing fats. Even if

there weren't a number of deficiencies that avoiding carbs completely

is likely to create (and there definitely are such deficiencies), it

would still be dangerous to the extent that it takes the emphasis off

of what's *missing* from the diet and puts it on what *is* in the

diet. The problem of what *is* in our foods isn't nearly as

important as the problem of what's *not* in our foods. Inventing

carbs and their consequent insulin production as the next " poison " in

our food supply just sets us up for a new crop of chronic diseases

and a new market for food processors to exploit.

I'm not much of a fan of grains from a nutritional standpoint but not

because of the carb content. It's the unbalanced mineral profile and

the unbalanced EFA composition that concerns me...and both of those

problems disappear for cultures with certain dietary patterns. A

diet high in dairy or high in fish and vegetables can easily balance

the deficient characteristics of grains...at which point, there's no

problem with properly prepared whole grains.

[Guest guest]

> -

> Yes, many of those cultures ate a fair amount of carbs, though to call

> their diet high-carb simply doesn't hold water in comparison to true

modern

> high-carb diets, but consider: fresh milk may be fairly carby, but

it also

> has plenty of fat and protein, and when they ate rye bread, they

didn't eat

> a low-fat or non-fat sandwich, they slathered it with tons of butter or

> other sources of fat and protein.

There is a big difference in the rye bread consumed by the Swiss

villagers and the grocery store variety " rye " bread. I have seen

" rye " bread that contains rye and wheat flour, corn syrup and sugar.