Hi...new to this low carb life. I have always tried to eliminate carbs without success. This time I have been following closely for over a month now. My clothes are fitting looser, so I want to continue. I do not weigh myself very often. I did have great success on a Slimfast competition several years back, but the sugar content and carbs are my trigger...I could truly live on sugar. Why are so many saying your body needs sugar ? We can get some in fruits, right ? It makes sense that flour, carbs, sugar, and wheat are my trigger foods and make me crave more of the same. Eliminating these has taken away all cravings. Hoping to learn the road to success and good health here. Louise

People say it out of ignorance. We actually don't need any carbs. We need to eat protein and we need to eat fat but we don't need to eat any carbs. There is no need to eat any fruit. The body can make the small amount of carbs it needs through a process called gluconeogenesis. Don't listen to the ignorant.

Jean

"Why do well meaning friends say this plan is dangerous to my health ?"

Possibly because they believe it is true and are concerned about your welfare. Thank them for their concern and take it into consideration. Make no argument. Truth is peace, harmony and gentleness.

"Why do well meaning friends say this plan is dangerous to my health ?"

Unsolicited advice is simply part and parcel of Low Carb Lifestyle! But to answer your question, I think part of it is that folk need for Low Carb to be unhealthy.

The other day my mother was informing my sister (who is also obese) how I had been having success with a LC WOE. My sister's reply, "I like Bread".

I think the low carb lifestyle is the best for LIFE! but many folk are simply not ready to make that sacrifice. Carbs are simply too powerful.

Plus the government is so anti low-carb! But that's for another forum.
Good luck to you and forget everybody!
Blessings,
Don

Same reason people told me homeschooling would mess up my kids, that dropping out of corporate life and becoming a server was a horrible life choice....and so many others. People see everything through their own lens. Just be polite and don't worry about it. Live your life your way.

They've been brainwashed by the sugar industry. It's sad really when you have to defend eating fresh natural food against food in a box and people believe your food is unhealthy.

I think so too.

To be fair, I haven't had anybody tell me that giving up bread and sugar is unhealthy. What I do get is, "Oh, I can't do that." And the words are almost always spoken in sadness. I understand the feeling, as I used to think the same thing about myself.

So true. For most things in life, you just can't worry about what the rest of the world thinks.

Thank you for all the great posts. I have read FAT SUGAR SALT, which explains why corporations push those on young people to addict lifelong customers...same as cigarettes and beer. Thank you for such priceless info !

There is no minimum daily requirement for carbs. NONE!!!
You might need to not share if people aren't willing to hear!
At the same time, you can be compassionate, as mentioned above people care for you, and just don't know the truth.
All the very best!!

For 50 years the medical institutions have declared that cholesterol was the cause of heart disease and that saturate fats (i.e. animal fats) are what raises cholesterol. Hence saturated fats will kill you.

If you read the literature though you will find that this assertion (fats linked to heart disease) turned out to be built on a foundation of sand. There were no clinical studies that proved it (plenty of epidemiological studies of the type which are very limited in usefulness but no CLINICAL studies, the gold standard). But they said "no this is too important to wait for evidence, if we're right millions could die if we wait!" and they rolled it out as fact. And they told us all to eat laboratory made polyunsaturated fats instead, that was the ticket to healthy hearts. It became conventional wisdom, and once it was there was no need for clinical studies. Everybody already knew that saturated fat caused heart disease. Duh!

Carbs in the form of grains and sugar as well as polyunsaturated fats (rich in yummy trans-fats!) were pushed on us all as so-called heart healthy alternatives to saturated fat. Yet evidence has mounted over the last 50 years that all the things they said would save us are killing us. Transfats: brutally bad! Polyunsaturated fats: Awful for us in ways we don't even fully understand yet! And of course as the public embraced their "healthy" guidelines, especially that food pyramid, our waists grew, diabetes skyrocketed, and I don't think there's been much, if any, progress on heart disease.

At the same time evidence has mounted that saturated fats and monounsaturated fats (think olive oil) are actually very beneficial, the role of cholesterol is far more complex than they'd known, and the role of insulin in our metabolism is crucial in how we gain/lose weight. Insulin, which their "heart healthy" carb loaded diet spikes and causes weight gain. But conventional wisdom of a half century is hard to overcome. There is an inertia behind it. Trailblazers like Dr. Atkins were called killers, incompetents. charlatans. Evidence that disputed the hallowed beliefs were marginalized. Scientists that challenged the consensus were deprived of grants. It would not be easy to change the minds of the scientists. But slowly, it is starting to come to pass. More and more scientists are now acknowledging that they got it wrong. I beleive it's inevitable that they will ultimately repudiate the guidelines they gave us for 50 years.

But your well meaning friends, they care about you. They still believe what all the doctors and scientists have told them for their entire lives. They think you are hurting yourself and they want to help you. Be grateful that you have people who care that much. Do the research yourself on insulin resistance (youtube is a good start) and if they continue to criticize, gently counter that the latest science supports your choice to eat this way. And thank them for their concern. At least, that's what I do.

I can understand the craving as the fruit lover. Agree with Jude there is the paradox among people, consider box food (highly processed) as healthy over natural food. Wish you all the success in the journey.