Oprah is on the cover of the Costco magazine that arrived today. She recognizes that we've "become the no-carb culture" and then gives her reasons why she cannot be...




http://www.costcoconnection.com/con...1701?pg=37#pg37

Meanwhile, also noted on the cover with a story in the magazine, is an interview with Melissa Hartwig about the Whole30 plan and their new cookbook stocked in every Costco. I've already seen the book from our library, good recipes and features other excellent Paleo cooking websites. Favorite low carb/paleo/Whole30 recipes from her favorite bloggers. Also listed as a new book in all Costcos is The 30 day Ketogenic Cleanse, which to me is rather a specialized diet, but goes to show how popular No Carb plans are (take that Oprah) Costco isn't going to stock a title in their tiny book section unless they expect to sell large volume. Our library has 37 copies of it also.

It makes me irritable when people equate LC with no carbs at all, but eating crackers certainly won't cure that kind of irritation.

One time I was explaining to a friend the way I eat as simply as possible: no starches, no sugars. She said "Like Atkins?" I said "Pretty much". Her response to that was "But that means no bread - that's BRUTAL!"

Like so many others, including Oprah, she is convinced she can't live with out bread.

I just tell them I eat meat and veggies and that usually satisfies them.....

Not for money, but for love. I don't think it's consciously done. She is after sustainable thin-ness, and so are her millions of admirers. She can *help and love* more people by everyone staying in the diet roller coaster. WW is perfect for that with its premise that refined grains and sweets can be handled in moderation, which will cause an endless need for program help for something like 75% of people? (the number from one of the Eades' books)

I agree.

WIth all the research out about how carbs, especially wheat and sugar, affect the brain, it is utterly explainable via addiction.

If that carload was on the way to the Oscars and they had all been abstaining from alcohol, would they pull over at a bar and explain it by, "I just can't go on without it."???

Of course not.

But that is only because crackers are not seen as a delivery substance for drugs.

Agree that addiction to carbs is likely involved.

OW: "...So no carbs doesn’t work for me after a while. I get so irritable and my brain doesn’t function..."

So she eats a bunch of crackers and goes into a wheat coma and her brain doesn't function. How is that better?

Exactly, she is addicted. The same thing probably happens to an addict coming off of drugs until they kick the habit.
I just wonder if she is on diabetes, high blood pressure and Stanton drugs??

I didn't notice her saying exactly how long they'd been on "no carbs", but if "after a while" was any less than at least 2 or 3 weeks, chances are they were still feeling the effects of induction flu, complete with brain fog from that, as their bodies tried to switch over to running on ketones, instead of carbs.

So if that's where they were in their "no-carb" diet, I understand them going for the crackers. I'm sure they felt completely justified in eating a few crackers too, because it wouldn't be good to show up at her Oscar rehearsal while in such a foul mood.

Crackers also sound so dietarily innocent, compared to so many other carbs they could have eaten - They could have decided they needed king size candy bars and full sugar Big Gulps instead.

But with crackers, there is still somewhat of an aura of good-for-you about them. Even the 7-11 where they stopped probably had hearthealthywholegrain Triscuits.

I'm not sure where she got the idea that we live in a no-carb culture though - if anything, it's becoming more and more difficult to find much these days that isn't almost 100% carbs, or at least doesn't have some kind of carbs added to it, especially at a processed-food-haven such as 7-11.

Actually those crackers are no better than a candy bar or a sugar drink.
Remember the Junior High experiment where you put a cracker on your tongue and wait for it to turn to sugar which you can definitely taste... They use to teach that, back in the day, that Carbs turn into sugar, maybe not these days because we've (she) been brainwashed into thinking we need bread/crackers/flour.

Not only did I have acute brain fog when switching over to low carb for the first time, only when I became fully acclimated did I realize that I'd been living with subtle chronic low level brain fog for quite some time. It took reducing carbs to 50-75 grams per day for 4-6 weeks to get to the point that I recognized its absence.

If you've never let yourself get acclimated to very low carb, you just don't know how much better you feel after you've kicked them.

I wonder if Oprah was not born addicted to sugar/carbs. She was born to a black teenage mother in the 1950s in the Southern US. I can't imagine that she had much in the way of prenatal care. As far as proper nutrition when she was growing up? Her family was POOR; I imagine they ate a higher carb diet than average even back then.

Doesn't Oprah maintain a home in NC? Too bad she can't drop in on Dr Westman.

Yes, agreed on all counts. WW does not help with calling carb withdrawal like it is, because WW officially does not recognize the addictive aspects of drug-like food. If it was widespread that "cranky from no carbs" is the same as "in withdrawal and needing a fix' - well, that would be harder for the mainstream to explain and support.

I remember when I realized that there nothing I can get in a 7 Eleven or Plaid Pantry. Maybe when they quit carrying printed books. Except for cheese sticks and maybe jerky (if no sugar) and maybe nuts (if not roasted in junk oils). Or artificially sweetened drinks or water I guess. Every single other thing in there is carby. Remember the ad for Plaid? "so much good stuff" LOLOL

Good point about born in carb world. My family was like that too and I'm pretty sure it did a number on my physiology way before I was making my own food choices.

WE know that crackers are no better than sugar, but if Oprah ever knew it (and she probably did at one time - she's old enough to have taken part in the saltine experiment in school), I believe she's simply blocked it from her mind.

That's what happens with the infiltration of so much LF and pro-grain propaganda for 30+ years. Unless you seriously ask yourself how in the world eating generous portions of protein and fat (with limited amounts of starch, and NO whole grains) kept you from gaining weight when you were young, you begin to doubt everything you grew up learning about food. I think many of us on here went through a similar time with the LF propaganda, until we finally figured out that the more strictly we tried to follow the LFHC recommendations, the more we gained.

Oprah keeps regaining her weight because she just can't fathom that she has to make a lifetime change to eat a certain way. So, she looses, regains, looses, regains.
In her new commercial which I just saw last night, she announces she has now lost xxx (fill in the blank) amount of weight.
But, as I thought before, I wonder how much meds she has to take to control diabetes, blood pressure and also the stantons....but she loves her bread! And so- that's her choice, bread with drugs.