Anne, The short answer is that carbs create and trigger addiction responses, just like nicotine, alcohol and other drugs. When you are hooked, you crave them for all the reasons explained in the book (High insuline, lack of calories for normal function because most are stored in the fat tissue, etc.)
Carbs and Fats do not create this addiciton response. Like fighting any other addiction, you have to cut them off (we're talking primarily about sugars and flours), go through the withdrawal phase like any other addicit who wants out and keep the substance forever away from you. There is no such thing as just one drink for alcoholics and there isn't such a thing as just one bite of something sugary or with flour for a carbohydrate addict either. Managing food is just harder than managing cigarrettes or alcohol because you do have to continue eating and there are many hidden addictive substances in many foods so staying alert is all that much harder. Before you know it, you've relapsed into the addiciton like it's happened to me and countless others. For many in these programs, other emotional tools like 12 steps, etc. are helpful as well. To me, something I started in June called EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) did the trick on the emotional side, but it's important to understand (as Taube clearly points out) that this is a physiological addictive response and has nothing to do with will power, self esteem or anything like that. Once you've gone through the withdrawal phase (Taube offers some good solutions to minimize discomfortable effects and explains why they occur), your cravings for carbohydrates really dissapear (YMMV). The problem is that after losing a noticeable amount of weight and feeling incredibly great, social pressure and established paradigms start acting on you and you feel like you've been so good you should get a reward... and fall into the slippery slope that will lead you back to the addiciton state. In my experience, and believe me I'm fully convinced now as I've lived this cycle several times, there is no freedom from the addiction and any reward should never take the form of sugar/flour/bad carbohydrate, but more preferred forms are bicycle, camera or any other such variations, apart from the feeling of well-being that comes from having lost weight, looking now better and feeling way much better. I'm now reading the book that Taube recommends for more details on the eating plan if you want them. His book quotes a very simple and correct eating plan but he recommends this book for people who feel they need more details and food plans. He references the works of one of the authors several times. The book is "The New Atkins for a New You", published last year and authored by Dr. Eric Westman. My opinion is that Taube's book is a lot more powerful in its message, while Westman's book is tailored like a diet book and has a much "softer" approach. Westman's book wouldn't have had the same impact Taube's book did on my realization that the answers were there all along, but somehow confused and mixed with the current paradigms so it was all too confusing. The good thing about Westman's book is that he provides qute a bit more detail on how to switch to this eating paradigm and when touching the topic of exercise quotes a study that was done with proffesional cyclists that proved that after a couple of weeks on the plan, after their metabolisms adapted to the new change and were burning fat instead of carbs, they showed no reduction in their endurance and maximal efforts but didn't consume their normal carbohydrate reserves (glycogen in the muscles and liver). I know other authors talk about how to use carbs when excercising, but I'd be willing to bet that if one takes the time to fully change eating paradigms and sticks to the 20 grams/day goal, one should be able to fuel during long rides using the same type of food rather than ingesting high carbs for the sugar rush/release. Both authors acknowledge that there is anecdotal evidence that inserting high carb meals into the regular low carb ones helps with the weight loss, sort of shaking the body a bit, but state there have been no formal studies conducted to prove/disprove this so they leave it up to you. When I've lost the 80 lbs I still need to lose, and start joining you on those brevets like the one you so vividly reported a few days ago, I'll hopefully have my own anectdotal evidence regarding how to best fuel for them. In the meantime, I plan to stick to this paradigm as I continue to get ready for my bike tour introductory course in May and will let you know how these longer (for me) rides come along with the new eating plan. Apologies for the lengthy message... :-) René On Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 4:39 PM, Anne Paulson <anne.paul...@gmail.com> wrote: > Why does "Carbohydrates are delicious but you should avoid them" > differ in diet success from "Fats are delicious but you should avoid > them"? How is it easier to avoid delicious carbohydrates than > delicious fats? > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
