On Wed, 5 Sep 2012 20:17:48 +0000 (UTC), Doug Freyburger
wrote:

[...]
And while I wouldn't want government
stepping in and telling manufacturers what they should make (God
forbid!), companies that are aware of (or should have been aware of)
the dangers of replacing various FOOD ingredients with processed
chemicals, knowingly making false claims, taking advantage of gullible
consumers like you, etc., should be roundly criticised, even sued out
of existence (See: Big Tobacco).

Consider the problem of margarine. It was sincerely believed to be
better when it first came out. It wasn't known that tobacco causes
problems until much of the world was addicted.

I disagree. Butter was tied to the saturated fat scare. But many
scientists knew that there was no credible data to support it. It was
purely a political decision (we can thank Eisenhower and McGovern for
that one), plain and simple.

And we've known that smoking causes cancer for seemingly forever. When
I was a kid, cigarettes were called "coffin nails" and "cancer
sticks." I eventually went on to smoke 3-4 packs of those "cancer
sticks" every single day, until I almost died from double pneumonia.
Thanks to a do-gooder doctor, who forced me to watch a movie (the old
reel-to-reel kind) of an autopsy of someone who died of lung cancer,
while I was still in the hospital, I stopped smoking. It "scared me
straight," so to speak.

And that includes the government
itself, which is where a lot of these health problems originate, such
as pushing the low-fat, high-carb paradigm, at the expense of people's
health. Throw in (mostly drug pushing) organizations like the ADA,
AHA, etc., and there should be enough malfeasance found to keep an
army of white-shoe law firms busy.

Sure but use the tobacco company experience as a caution.

A caution for what?

This is a good example of why so many dieters fail - they fall for
this rubbish, i.e., that you can have your cake and eat it, too (no,
you can't!), and then wonder why they're still fat and/or unhealthy,
or can't keep the weight off, long-term.

Sheesh.

Can we really blame people who eat what is suggested and then it does
not work?

Maybe.

Can we really blame people who eat what's on the market and
it ends up addictive?

Carbs have been known to be addictive for as long as I can remember,
especially sugars and starches.

At least we need to stop claiming that moderation
works.

You'll never hear me saying those words.

No way moderation works in the face of those two forces.

Absolutely not.

It's not unlike any addiction. I'm not aware of any 12-step program
(essentially the only ones that work) that allows for a few drinks, or
a few hits, etc.

And so
here we are doing PR for low carb.

Low-carb could use some good PR.

Just like you can't be a little bit pregnant, you can't be a little
bit low-carb and expect to be successful in the long run.

Caveat. If low is good lower is not better. It just doesn't work that
way no matter how many quotes get thrown at it.

Being a little bit low-carb, in my mind, is to look for loopholes
(have your cake and eat it too). Eventually those loopholes add up,
and you're not really eating low-carb anymore. Wheat (even small
amounts) stimulates appetite, and who wants that?

Caveat. If low is good then a small move towards low should be
something of an improvement. That strategy tends to trigger cravings.

Exactly.

If a food triggers cravings stop eating it.

Bingo! And that's precisely what wheat does to many, many people. The
only way to find out if you're one of them is to totally stop eating
wheat and see what happens.

There is no nutrition associated with today's wheat (just empty
calories, like sugar, unless it's been "fortified"), and you can get
all the vitamins, minerals and fiber you need from meat, fish,
shellfish, veggies, and some fruit. Experimenting with things like
"resistant flours" is akin to getting hooked on methadone while you're
being "treated" for a heroin habit. It just perpetuates the addiction
("cravings").

Anyway, that's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it.

--
Dogman

"I have approximate answers and possible beliefs in different degrees of certainty
about different things, but I'm not absolutely sure of anything" - Richard Feynman