Cleaning up your carb act

LA Times article.Awareness is step 1 in any change.

Joanne Slavin, professor of nutrition at the University of Minnesota, member of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee:

"Americans have to eat fewer calories. But I see no value in making a hit list for carbs. There are many healthy eating patterns, and potatoes, pasta, white bread and rice surely fit into many of these."

Slavin mentions rice which is empty calories with almost no nutritional value. Rice is true junk food as far as carb and nutrition goes.For those inclined to read nutrient tables here's detailed info on rice.

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/cereal-grains-and-pasta/5707/2

And white bread & pasta. How white bread and pasta can fit into any diet is beyond me.Ask yourself what it is you like about pasta. I doubt it is the actual pasta, but the sauce, vegetables or proteins that go with it. The pasta is just there to make you full. When did you last eat pasta on it's own?

I eat pasta, but without the pasta. Normally I replace the pasta with either cooked or pan fried vegetables. Cauliflower ground down to the size of rice is delicious. And it takes on an interesting flavor when fried in a pan.

In a world of increasing obesity I find it careless for a professor in nutrition, who is also a member of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, to say rice, pasta and white bread aren't that bad. But that's just me...

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to recognize the power of Big Food lobbyism and their wallet.

Entire article here:
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-carbs-tips-20101220,0,4380325.story

Cracked heels

I just saw this commercial on TV. About cracked heels and some "wonder oil" that the actors say fixed their cracked heels in a jiffy.

Not my heels, but pretty close to what they looked like. Let me tell you, it HURT. No matter how much oils, lotions I used, no matter how much I scrubbed my heels, they just kept cracking. No more. Same thing with cracked elbows. And fingers. And.. and... The list goes on. In general my skin has become very healthy compared to when I ate tons of carbs.

The more research I read about how carbohydrates changed mankind as far as what diseases we suffered from, the more convinced I get carbs make us sick. Not just fat, but sick as well. There are numerous studies showing indigenous people did not suffer from western diseases until they adapted western diets.

Why low carb diets must be high fat, not high protein

Great article by Barry Groves, PhD.

We now know that we should eat a diet that is low in carbohydrates. But a plethora of books published in the last decade have been low-carb, high-protein, or low-carb, high-fat, or low-carb, high-'good'-fats, or all sorts of other mixtures. In other words, the real confusion lies in what we should replace the carbohydrates with: for example, should it be protein or fats? And if fats, what sort of fats? This article, I hope, will answer the question and put any doubts out of your mind. In a nutshell, carbs should be replaced with fats, and those fats should be mainly from animal sources. 

http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/fat-not-protein.html