No, I did not see the shows, but I do want to catch them. I did read an
article about high fructose corn syrup yesterday that was pretty scary. Go
to the www.powereating.com web site...be sure it is the one by Dr. Kleiner
who wrote a book about eating for strength training athletes. Click on
article or topic of the month..I told the kids that this was another food
they would not be seeing as much of in the house. By the way, I lost a fair
amount of my weight (total now 94 lbs) using her guidelines and have
decided to revisit her plans for about a month as an experiment. Nothing
too drastic...but, believe it or not, involves more food. I never felt
lethargic when on her eating plan even though I was severely anemic at the
time! I'll keep you posted (no pun intended).

Elise.
"Julianne" wrote in message
newsS5lc.33964$NZ4.27001@lakeread05...
Yesterday, I happened upon the food channel in the afternoon and there
were
two very interesting shows back to back.

First was one about the low carb revolution. It was pretty interesting.
They did promote both sides of the low carb way of life. They also
recited
some interesting stats about the overall amount of bread and wheat
consumed
by Americans and of course, the dreaded health statistics about the rising
rates of diabetes and heart disease. They also sort of grouped all low
carb
diets together. The differences between South Beach and Atkins may be
slight but I think they are of critical importance. They had one guy who
will be hosting a low carb cooking show on HGTV who had lost over 200
pounds. His wife and children also did well. They are like the poster
family of low carb eating.

And of course, there were the critics. They said that breads and grains
were an important part of the diet and severely restricting carbs would
lead
to heart disease as the amount of fat increased and the potential for
kidney
and liver problems as protein increased. As best I know, there are few
documented cases of either of those things happening. Also, they pointed
out that there is very little research done long term. I agree with that.
Is the oxidative stress of digesting sat fats eventually going to catch up
with us as a nation?

Neither side emphasized moderation. They interviewed the SBD author
(Agatson?) and he stated it was about good carbs and good fats and not
about
'counting' anything. From my own experience this last week, I have been
getting around fifty or so carbs per day - all extremely low on the GI
index
but certainly enough to keep me out of ketosis. Also, although I really
don't like the way my fat calories stack up, there are far more
monounsaturated than sat fats which is not true of all low carb diets.

Following the low carb show was something called Chef's challenge. A spa
chef weighing in at 278 pounds went on a challenge to lose ten percent of
his body weight in 12 weeks. Two other people were also in the challenge
with the same goal but not the same weight (a woman - 189 who looked
reasonably good) and her husband who was in the lower 200's.

Anyway, they exercised and the chef prepared spa food for them. IMHO,
their
weight loss was disappointing. The first month, every one did well. Both
of the men lost 10 pounds and the woman lost seven. The second month, the
spa guy lost only one pound and weight loss slowed for everyone.

What I noticed about the food is that none of it, in and by itself, was
anything but healthy but it was loaded with carbs. For instance, the
woman
complained of missing her chocolate and her ice cream at night. To
substitute, the chef made whole wheat cookies with brown sugar and topped
it
with a sorbet made from pureed bananas and strawberries. A second sauce,
made primarily from fruit was added to that. That would make me starving
in
the next hour.

The chef was very proud of his blueberry dressing that contained no oil.
The amounts of protein added to foods was minimal. On the positive side,
tons of vegetables were eaten and everyone involved was exercising with a
trainer. The chef took the couple to restaurants and shopping and told
them
how to choose food and incorporate healthy eating into their lifestyle for
the long run. The man in the couple was a type two diabetic and was able
to
cut his insulin in half at the end of the show proving that weight loss,
regardless of the kind, really improves diabetes.

Anyway, it was very interesting to see these two shows back to back.

Did anyone else see them?

Julianne