http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/extref/nn.2519-S1.pdf

Restricted and extended ate fewer carbs, more cholesterol, more saturated fat. Saturated fat to trans-fat was about 10:1.

Now the interpretation is even more fun to do…

So my doc sent me to the diabetic indoctrination gulag — the nutrition class at the local hospital — where they spent a week scaring the bejeebers out of me about fat, carbs, and cholesterol. Gotta get ‘em down, your heart, your pancreas, your kidneys, omg, OMG, zOMG! And it wasn’t just too much sweet stuff making your blood sugar go nuts, it was fat and cholesterol, too — the heart disease would jump you in an alley, steal your wallet, rape your sister, shave your ferret, erase your hard disk, and scrawl things on your car hood with a key. Your kidneys would crawl up your throat and drag the dialysis machine back down after them. Then, after all your toes EXPLODED, you’d have a heart attack. This is a bit of hyperbole, but it was the kind of scare tactics — and a lot of it was directed at fat and cholesterol, not just controlling carbs.

So on the low-fat diet you go. Fake eggs, plastic food, no fat…but they don’t warn you about HFCS, because “fructose is good for diabetics”. After all, it doesn’t make your blood glucose go up. (arrrgh). After a year and a half of this, my cardiologist is ready to strangle me because my lipids are off the chart. They used to be excellent, now they’re awful! He wants me on statins, but lucky me, I’m allergic to them. *neener* So he wants me to use Dean Ornish’s “Reversing heart disease” diet.

I read the thing. I growl. I scream. I throw the book across the room. Then I hit Google and do my homework. I throw out the pourable egg white crap. I buy real eggs. I get BACON. I get rid of the Smart Balance and get BUTTER. I start eating real meat again. I tell my doctors they can pound sand, and not to bug me about my cholesterol numbers anymore. I quit all sugary drinks, I drink club soda now. Just got Sally Fallon’s cookbook, found it when I found Fat Head on Amazon.

Quitting the sweet stuff is evil hard. I’ve given up a LOT of it, and it no longer tastes as good, and I don’t feel good when I eat it. But the craving is still there, and it’s definitely an addiction. I’m not addicted to bacon, though I love it. But if I get the chocolate crunch cakes from Dominos (once in a blue moon), if I only eat one of them, the compelling urge to eat the other in the box is almost more than I can stand. It’s clearly a drug reaction, pushing me to eat more sugar, even though I can tell it’s not good for me. And I still order them, knowing they’re not. Eventually, I’ll manage to stop.

Stick with it. At least you have the knowledge. You can get some good tips on overcoming the sugar cravings by reading The Mood Cure, by Julia Ross.

This study was in my local paper. It made me so angry to read it that I started composing my email to the Editor in my head. The sad part is that I never bothered to write the email because I just gave up – I thought – no one will care, it’s too hard to fight this fight against the conventional wisdom and establishment. After almost 2 years of being converted to low-carb/anti-processed foods, I just feel too discouraged to tell people about it anymore – even when I get compliments on my weight loss and questions on how I did it, I just reply that I cut out sugar, because it seems to be the only acceptable response without people thinking I’m a kook. But wearing a Wheat is Murder t-shirt will make me feel like I’m getting my point across at least a little bit, even if people don’t get it.

I should get some of those printed up. Yes, it’s true, if you tell people you’ve cut out sugar, they applaud. Tell them you’ve given up bread, and they think you’re a weirdo.

I knew my girl was smart. Thanks for clarifying.

It sounds like you admitted to having been a carb binger so I have to ask, do you ever give in? All you low carb gurus seem so perfect. ☺

Now that my body is trained to rely on fat instead of glucose for its primary source of fuel, most of the foods that I could previously put away in mass quanities have lost their appeal. Perhaps once every three or four months I’ll go out for pizza, and I’m still capable of eating a lot of it when I do … but not an entire large pizza.

The same goes for frosting. Used to be that when there was cake, I’d try to get a big honkin’ corner piece with plenty of icing and scrape extra icing off the serving platter. After eating all that, I’d still want more.

These people are only confirming their anti-fat bias and just can’t conceive of the possibility that it may the carbs that are addicting.

I guess that could be a selling point for a lot of carb-heavy foods: “Try it … you’ll be addicted in no time!”

I really detest how so-called ‘addiction’ studies are presented and reported. Look up addiction in the DSM IV. It’s not there, the best you will find is a wishy-washy definition under dependence.

I think we all have an “breathing addiction”.

There was a Cinnabon right next the Starbucks in a building where I used to work. Boy, they had some long lines in the morning.

She actually includes instructions for when to stop. Example:

She is also, of course, a big fan of getting your amino acids through proper diet. The supplements are intended to overcome deficiencies from years of bad diets.