They find a college student who says he quit low carb because it didn't offer enough options in his diet. Just what recipe book was this low carb student using? We eat hundreds of different things, all tasty and easy. If the student was lusting after nachos (as the photo with the article shows) there are even low carb chips that I adore. It's his own fault if his method of dieting involved gorging solely on chicken wings.
The report then announces that "only" 25% of the US citizens are significantly cutting carbs. Oh, what a shame. Only a QUARTER OF ALL ADULTS are seriously doing low carb? And this is a sign of what? To me, that's a pretty clear indication that 1) low carb is not a fad and 2) a large number of people realize that refined carbs are unhealthy.
Next, the report talks about low carb products failing. Funny, when I look in the store I see ALL my favorites and they sell briskly. But they chose to interview American Italian Pasta, a maker of dry pasta. Well, hello! Those dry pastas taste pretty awful. And the point of low carb is to eat healthy foods, not dried cardboard-tasting starch products. So the products that have a purpose - say snack bars to carry with you, Splenda for baking - sell well. Things like fake pasta which is only half bad for you and has little nutritional value (plus tastes bad) - well, that's the sort of thing low carb was trying to get us to stop eating in the first place.
It's pretty sad when the media has to drum up a story saying "Wow, low carb isn't growing hugely, it's only growing slowly!" and "only 25% of our population is doing serious low carb dieting!" They seem to WANT this lifestyle to fail. But when you come down to it, low carb is about eating healthy food. It's about eating lots of vegetables, drinking lots of water, eating chicken, fish, and other fresh meat. It's about avoiding sugars, avoiding empty starches, avoiding junk food. Trade that coke for a water. Trade that bowl of ice cream for fresh fruit. Get exercise in your life to build up your metabolism. If the media would simply encourage healthy living instead of bashing people who are doing it, we might make some progress in our efforts against obesity!
Original CNN Story on Low Carb
Lisa Shea's Library of Low Carb Books
