Diet

In keeping with the Daily Smile post from today, and the multiple other times I vaguely referred to going low/no carb, I thought I'd finally explain that a little.

Fathead is a movie/documentary made in response to the complete nonsense that was Super Size Me. A lot of people think Super Size Me (SSM from here forward) made some kind of point about how bad for you McDonald's is, or exposed fast food joints as monsters who don't care about killing us all as long as they make a profit. I won't try to argue that eating Mickey D's all day everyday is a good idea (for one thing, it's expensive), but as Tom Naughton shows in his movie above, you can do so and stay healthy. He was checked by his doctor both before and after and some of his health stats actually improved. None got worse. He also showcases the apparent fraud that went into SSM, since Morgan Spurlock's food logs have never been released. And according to calculations, there is no way he could have eaten as much as he says given the rules he laid out, unless he was stacking the deck in his favor off camera. After all, a movie that said, "you know what, as long as you pay attention, you can eat fast food and be fine," was hardly likely to get the kind of fame SSM accumulated.

Fathead points the finger at the real culprit: sugar and carbs - which essentially become sugar once digested and results in an insulin reaction. Sound familiar? Yep, this is the shit that causes diabetes. But for some reason (watch the movie above if you really want to know) Americans have been led to believe that FAT is the problem, not sugar, for decades now and despite mountains of evidence to the contrary. That's why the Atkins diet has been so successful. Obesity and diabetes are on the rise in America because of the way we eat, but especially because we've been ignoring the real problem. It's gotten so bad, they're actually making another movie about it.

That's a trailer for Fed Up, a film that points out that 80% of foods in our country have added sugar, and that our brains react to sugar in a manner similar to cocaine, indicating it's an addictive substance. They point out that absent will power and laziness aren't to blame. I certainly think that more exercise is a good thing, but we've been missing the root problem. Fed Up calls out McDonald's and other fast food places like SSM did, but for completely different reasons - their added sugar content. 

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All said to say that, for the most part, I'm off the sugar high. I no longer drink sugary drinks - though I do occasionally have Splenda sweetened drinks that don't cause the same chemical reactions in your body - and I eat very little bread. Low/no carb is a little more complex than just those two steps, but they are a place to start. If you interested in doing this, Google it. Tons of people are putting this information together and recognizing that sugar's the problem. There are dozens of sites out there that offer alternate recipes for traditionally sugar heavy foods and support for people venturing out into this realm. I must warn you, when I say "diet" as in the title of this post, I don't mean a temporary stop gap to get off the extra weight. Carb free is a way of life, and I view diet in terms of the first definition: "the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats." This is how you'll live from now on. But I promise you, it's not that hard. Humans have been doing it for centuries, and you'll probably feel much better.