by Gary Taubes, from the May 08 Prevention magazine

http://www.prevention.com/cda/artic...008.issue/0/0/1

Diary of a Carb Phobe
I avoided bread and pasta like the plague. Soon my friends avoided me like it, too
By Gary Taubes

Give up carbs and prepare to spend the rest of your life on the defensive.

This has been my experience, at least, particularly since researching and writing Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Control, and Disease. For me, it all began in the summer of 1999, when I interviewed a professor at MIT who said he'd lost and kept off 40 pounds by eating a high-fat diet--the Atkins diet, as it's commonly known. Since this professor seemed like a reasonably thoughtful guy, absent of any obvious self-destructive tendencies, I decided to try the same as an experiment.

I gave up bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, cereals, pastries, sodas, and beer. Instead, I ate to my appetite's content mostly high-fat, cholesterol-laden foods that are supposed to kill us (if not sooner, then certainly later)--bacon and sausages for breakfast and meat, fish, or fowl at every other meal. I ordered bacon cheeseburgers for lunch and ate them without the bun.

I became a devotee of butter sauces; cheese plates replaced bread pudding and rhubarb pie for dessert.


I rarely left the table hungry, because I ate enormous portions, as I always had; I just didn't eat carbohydrates. My regimen pleased my wife, who now felt she could enjoy her own meals at a leisurely pace without the threat that I would reach for her mashed potatoes before she did. I dropped pounds effortlessly and stopped exercising regularly, because my weight was now dropping without it. I felt exceptionally well, and because I'm a science journalist with an investigative bent, I spent the years that followed trying to understand the many implications of a diet that allowed me to eat copious quantities of food, but made me much leaner nonetheless.

Aside from its many benefits, I've learned there are indeed some side effects to this dietary regimen--primarily social and marital ones. First of all, gone are the days that my wife and I will be invited over for a simple meal--the "let me put some spaghetti on the stove with a nice sauce" type of thing. (Friends who are exceedingly fond of grilling or barbecuing are the exception.) Invitations to dinner parties are offered with trepidation and a "what can you eat?" tone, as though whatever it may be will require a special run to the slaughterhouse. A whiff of resentment hovers in the host's kitchen, as though my dietary faddishness forced a menu change for everyone else, all of whom now have to eat a thoroughly mediocre leg of lamb when they could have enjoyed the host's signature buckwheat rigatoni with broccoli rabe and tofu instead.

After the main course, I have to deal with the specter of dessert, or rather my desire to abstain. Nobody likes an overt show of moral superiority, and that's how my abstinence is often perceived. The last time I declined, it happened to be a pie baked by the daughter of the host for his birthday. And so I had not merely passed on dessert, I had rejected a touching symbol of filial love. Before I knew it, I was embroiled in a heated discussion about what my hosts now decided was a particularly American inability to enjoy anything in moderation--be it food, drink, or life. My response that moderation--for me, at least--meant no desserts, failed to warm any hearts other than my own. The fact is, I choose to avoid foods that make me fat, a seemingly reasonable behavior--just as avoiding cigarettes seems like a reliable way to reduce my risk of lung cancer.

As for the marital fallout...well, your spouse may feel pressured to share your diet, or at least to avoid the same foods you do, and so she may feel guilty when she eats french fries in your presence or the bun that comes with her hamburger. Such guilt-inspired eating habits may make your partner look crazier than people think you are: The wife of one carb phobe I know took to soaking her pretzels in water so that the crunch--something in very short supply in carbohydrate-restricted diets--would not alert her husband to the carbo-loading going on in the other room. She also hid her cache of chocolate behind the cat food, insisting later that it was a perfectly natural place to store it and only a paranoid food fanatic would think differently.

Perhaps the worst aspect of following a diet that most of your peers consider "a fad" is that you may often feel a compulsion to prove that you're justified in doing so. This requires not just slimming down but actually living longer and remaining healthier than any of your friends. Because bad luck can be as much a factor here as genes and diet, you're now in a delicate position, one that will last a lifetime (you hope). On the one hand, the temptation to treat your friends' medical misfortunes as minor or even major victories is compelling, but you'll have to keep this secret deeply hidden if you want to continue to enjoy their company. Then, of course, should anything unfortunate happen to you--"even moles in [your] front lawn," as the New York physician Blake Donaldson, an early proponent of carbohydrate-restricted diets, noted in his 1961 memoirs--everyone will blame it on your diet.

This past winter, I was anxious (as I will be next winter) that I would slip on an icy sidewalk, as Dr. Robert Atkins did, and crack my head open, thus prompting some chortling among critics and book reviewers that my fall was actually the result of a fat-induced coronary. Meanwhile, my wife recently insisted that I buy a life insurance policy to minimize the damage of such an occurrence, or the possibility that I'm dead wrong (pun intended) about the consequences of a fat- and meat-rich, carb-free diet. The editor of my book has also requested that if I am to die prematurely--and particularly if it's from anything even vaguely diet-related--to try to postpone my demise until after the book comes out in paperback.



Gary Taubes covers health controversies as an award-winning correspondent for Science magazine. Good Calories, Bad Calories will be out in paperback this fall.

I loved this article!

I think the main reason that i am not going "All out" with lowcarb is that I don't (yet) have the fortitude to say NO to food in a social context. There are still SO many cultural and social bonds forged by food and eating.

I have a dream that I will someday find some kind of middle ground where I can stay reasonably lowcarb without having to constantly argue my food choices and prove the superiority of these food choices.

Gary can come over to dinner at our house any time he likes.

I can relate to a lot of this, as I am sure most people following low carb eating would. The health thing is funny. My husband and I were discussing raising our (future) kids low carb, and one of us said something along the lines of, "if there's anything wrong with them, from normal colds to a learning disorder, people will blame it on diet." Now, my husband will justify any little medical thing wrong with him as "not diet related". For instance, he was just diagnosed with degenerative disk disorder. He asserted, almost to himself, "I must have had this long before starting low carb [in January]."

Regarding the social aspects, yeah there's no real way to beat that. Some people can be reasoned with, especially if you offer to bring a low carb dish that everyone can enjoy. A lot of people have come around after seeing results in me and one of my sisters (who was overweight, but not that overweight and returns to SAD after she loses weight). Other times, it's not that big of a deal to people if you don't eat, especially if it's more of an informal social eating situation. It's probably going to be a lifelong issue for lowcarbers, even if there are huge changes in nutritional recommendations. Many people just couldn't imagine life without starches and sugars.

Great article by Gary, as always!

I think diabetics have it easier. We can say 'oh, so sorry, I would LOVE to try your pie, but I'm diabetic and just can't eat sugary things (looking appropriately sad). We can also avoid starches the same way - 'ya know, I really can't have those wonderful looking hash browns ... potatoes turn to sugar the minute I eat them and they mess with my diabetes (again, looking sad and pitiful). But I'd love another slice or two of that ham!'

No reason why a non diabetic can't use this ploy too. What the heck, it's a fib (maybe, maybe not, 'cause some people MIGHT be diabetic if they were to go back to carb loading) but it saves face all around and the host is not offended. It's a Medical Thing, not that we don't like the looks of their food! Sometimes a little white lie is diplomacy at it's best.

That was a total riot. I <3 Gary Taubes

Terrific article! Really, I think one of the things that has made this easier for me is that I don't have many food-oriented social occasions. Holidays; that's about it, and I smuggle some nuts in my purse so I can nibble those if there isn't enough I can eat otherwise.

I never cease to be amazed at how upset some people become about my WOE. Especially my rejection of fruits and vegetables; I'll even have people who are "on" Atkins, use lame admonishments like, "It's supposed to be low-carb, NOT no-carb." I'm more and more tempted to hide behind some pretend allergy, just as a way of politely deflecting the carb pushers. One thing I've noticed, is that people seem to happily cater to vegetarians and even vegans; I've never seen someone offering meat to someone they know is vegetarian, and urging them with "ohh come on, a little meat won't hurt you." - but I frequently have to endure statements like "I'll just cut you a sliver of cake, you have to have a little." Anyway, thanks for the article - I'm just in the middle of GCBC; It's an excellent book.

Taubes' observations are spot on. Fortunately for me, the wife does LC too so we have harmony and support at home. And after several years our family has figured out what we will eat and has adapted reasonably well. But it does cause a little friction at times when my willpower comes across as superiority. Doesn't help that I have a hard time not preaching the virtues of LC. I want to spread the word though, and every time someone makes a comment about high fat foods it puts me in debate mode.

There's one other aspect of eating LC that I have, that he really didn't touch on. Its the nagging fear that this diet is NOT the best for me. Whenever I have any health problem, I feel compelled to consider whether it is due to my way of eating. I guess its the years of hearing the fat-is-bad mantra that has left some little bit of doubt or at least worry. I really do believe this way of eating is best, due to its being akin biochemically to what we are adapted to eat. And the proof you see in weight loss and improvement of other chronic conditions is undeniable.

Yet I sometimes wonder if what we are adapted to eat still might not result in maximum longevity. Nature really doesn't strive to keep living things alive longer than necessary for reproduction and rearing of the next generation. So even though we are to be maximally healthy during our reproductive and child-rearing years, will LC's benefits last a lifetime? Life expectancy has risen in spite of diet, or is the "prudent" diet somehow better for longevity even if it doesn't lead to optimum health along the way? I think only time will tell, as more of us life-long LCers perform these experiments one person at a time. I expect it might be much like some of the drugs that improve certain conditions, you won't see an increased life expectancy because there are so many things that factor into the equation. If thats the case then being healthy along the way is definitely worth it.

wow, this is a WONDERFUL article and echoes what a lot of us are going through.

*hey, MOLES, get off my lawn!*

I can see this being an issue for a lot of people, because you are relying on theory and limited evidence that LC is the best diet for a lifetime. I guess I'm lucky. Having been, past tense, a Type II diabetic with blood sugar levels that could not be controlled (300 - 400 fasting) through maximum dosages of meds while eating a low calorie ADA approved diet and not just surviving but thriving after LC, I don't have those concerns.

However, I can see where it's a big leap of faith for someone who was never in that condition to believe. And honestly, whatever we say, at this point it is belief, not science. On the other hand, there is less science and more belief associated with the "low fat healthy diet,", at least from my perspective.

I use this excuse all the time, even though it is now only marginally true. My doctor won't call me diabetic anymore based on my A1C and FBG. He says I have "Metabolic Syndrome".

If the moles are such a problem, why not eat them? Probably tastes like chicken. Thoreau wrote about eating the mole that was trashing his garden.

My main problem with lowcarb is it doesn't help reduce my tendency to overeat. Taubes makes the point, you won't get lean eating a high fat diet, you just won't get fatter. That was my result while on the Atkins diet. I went from 210 pounds to 180 then settled there. I lost 10 more by increasing my exercise. I keep leaning toward CR. It would lead to real 'leanness' and eventually I might have better control over my appetite, something that Atkins never did. Initially any diet will cause weight loss but as Taubes said, all diets fail eventually. For longevity, CR would be better as well.

Switching from Atikins to PPLP allowed me to control my hunger. The reason is not a flaw in Atkins; the reason is that I was following Atkins but *not* eating enough protein. You may be different, but when I see the posts from people on Atkins who are talking about being hungry, most of them are not eating enough protein as described by PPLP. I'm not saying that Eades guide to minimum requirements is an absolute, only that I've seen a correlation between not meeting that recommendation and hunger.

I don't think there's any evidence to really make that statement. I don't think low carb and CR have gone head to head have they?

And it seems like almost everyone does some spontaneous CR when they go low carb. I do, but I have to keep the dairy products out of the picture because I can definitely over-eat on those.

I think the MN Starvation study gives me an idea of how useful calorie restriction is... ::shudder::