What do you think of this guy and his ideas?

He says if carbs were as addictive as cocaine, than cocaine addicts would ditch their cocaine addictions in favor of carbs...as if all addictions are the same and you can simply replace one addiction with another.

He did say that in Italy they consume 3 times as much pasta as in the US yet they are 1/3 as fat as Americans. Not sure if it is true, but I'd be curious why. Maybe their fat intake with high carbs is much lower?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q-sHS27PZU

He's a lobbyist for the Grain Foundation...

As far as the Italian diet is concerned, I'm sure it works fine for some people.

As far as carbs being as addictive as cocaine, I'm not sure anyone is claiming that. That doesn't mean they're not addictive.

I think the factor in the US and UK that makes the difference is the high fructose in sugar and HFCS and even juices. Once you have the fructose related damage, then all carbs become a big problem - even healthier carbs like fruit. Fructose is in many processed foods and drinks.

If you never have much fructose in your diet, then it probably takes longer for a higher carb diet based on grains to do damage - leading to obesity and diabetes from middle age onwards.

Gary Taubes wrote an article about this a while ago, and Robert Lustig has a famous lecture about the dangers of fructose.

Lee