"Daniel Hoffmeister" wrote in
message ...
While watching the news early this morning, I caught this
weird 'public
service announcement'.

Woman driving in a car, ominous voice over starts out "In the
headlong
rush to lose weight..." and goes on to tell us of the health
risks of
cutting out "essential carbohydrates": high blood pressure,
heart disease,
and (pause for effect...) cancer.

I caught the Web site, it's the Partnership for Essential
Nutrition:
http://www.essentialnutrition.org/
I remember seeing something about this outfit earlier in the
summer.
There is some big money behind it and it was founded by Shape
Up America.

As usual, it creates a strawman diet in which people are
"eating unlimited
amounts of meat and fat".

Typical drivel from those that don't take time to research that
which they
talk about. Makes everything they say suspect.

From http://www.essentialnutrition.org/lowcarb.php

"The United States is in the midst of a skyrocketing obesity
epidemic.
Today, more than 60 percent of American adults are overweight
or obese,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), and
many are investing in diet books, such as those promising
rapid weight
loss in a matter of weeks by greatly restricting the intake of
carbohydrates while eating unlimited amounts of meat and fat."

See above comment....

But, wait! That's not all! They can have it both ways,
because "... the
prime reason that low-carbohydrate diets work at all is that
people on
these plans consume fewer calories than the body needs, which
is the same
principle used by every other diet." All this while eating
those
unlimited amounts of meat and fat. Pretty good trick!

Flawed research and knowledge....

There's a lot of "according to scientists" and "according to
doctors and
nutritionists" and "numerous studies have shown" (all
unspecified) strewn
throughout, something that always makes me suspicious.

The fits right in with "as everyone knows", "it's common
knowledge",
"it's obvious". Through out some generalities that can not be
pinned
down to make a point when you have no real info.

One thing they do have right, though -- their survey showed
that the
average American is woefully uninformed about what
carbohydrates are and
which foods contain them.

True...

On a side note, in this context I find it interesting that my
maintenance
level will probably be around 90-100g of carbs a day (a mere
25% reduction
in the recommended 130g per day).


I'm just slightly lower to maintain by BG Levels with Type 2
Diabetes.
They need to get educated to the idea that "Low Carb" does not
mean "No Carb".

BJ
232/182/182 reached goal 18months ago
Ha1c 5.0 for the last 2 years