So, is everyone a carb addict?

No. Not even. Think of the Pima Indians. Sure, 50% have bloated up -- but 50% of them haven't!

So, a lot of people would be a lot better off without any sugar, without any white flour and with reduced carbs.

But some people lose weight while eating half a cup to a cup of sugar a day (like this guy) and others do just fine in their blood work (like this one) but it doesn't usually hurt to start that way. South Beach Diet guidelines are an easy way to do that.

Bottom line:

So many folks are looking for a miracle program that has every nutrition and lifestyle choice under a microscope. Something to "guarantee" results, as it dominates all aspects of their life.

That article goes on to explain:

4. Low Carbs or High Carbs? Make a Choice.

Everyone knows that in order to lose fat you need to cut your carbs, right? Not so fast. Certain studies have shown that some people lose almost twice as much fat on high carb diets as they would on low carb diets. However, others will lose twice as much fat by doing the opposite and keeping their carbs low (3).

This is due to variations in insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance. In many ways, insulin and glucose have a stimulating effect on the body. In people that are insulin sensitive, carbs increase sympathetic nervous system activity (think natural amphetamine), which translates into a boost in metabolism.

However, the thermic effect of carbohydrate ingestion varies greatly between different people. Insulin resistant people don't get the same metabolic stimulating effect. But people that are more insulin sensitive often feel like crap on low carb diets for this reason. Their metabolism quickly drops like a rock in response to low carbs, while more insulin resistant people will enjoy greater energy and mental clarity.

So, how do you tell which VIP club you're in? If you feel like death after a few days of low carbs and find that you don't lose much fat, you're probably more insulin sensitive. You can likely succeed with a diet as high as 50% carbs. If you feel on top of the world, you're probably more insulin resistant and will do better keeping carbs to 30% or less.

If you're still not sure which group you're in, test yourself. After eating a fairly high carb diet (at least 150 to 200 grams) for three days, and going at least 24 hours without exercise, have 50 to 75 grams of medium glycemic carbs, such as oatmeal, for breakfast.

Scroll down, ignore the advertisements and you will eventually get to a test to figure out what kind of diet will work for you (instead of making you balloon up even bigger).

If after an hour, you feel sleepy and are hungrier than you were before eating, then carbs aren't for you. If you feel more energetic, then carbs are your new training partner.

What about surgery?

First thing they will tell you is no sugar and no bread. Ok.

Second thing they will tell you is that it only works if you join and attend a support group. Most people are back to where they were (except disfigured and scarred by surgery) within seven years.

Bottom line: you have to live as if you were strictly part of OA-HOW and they also want $14,000 or so from you.

Try OA HOW first, see if you can handle it for a year. If you can, then weight loss surgery is for you, if you still need it. If you can't, the surgery isn't going to work for you, just screw you up really badly. The surgery is as bad for you, or worse, than being fat. That isn't much of an improvement.

• http://www.foodaddictsanonymous.org/faq.htm
  
• http://wordpress.com/tag/oahow/
• http://oahow.squarespace.com/1a-oa-how-questions-ii/
• http://www.oa.org/faqs_page2.html#18
• Recipes and eating plans
• www.foodaddictsanonymous.org -- the guys who agree with Gary
  Taubes and science. Still not reconciled, guess because they are right, kind of.
  

Harder to find than I thought. At least OA HOW has reconciled with OA these days even if food addicts hasn't.

Try them for a year, figure out if you want HOW or FA, and see how it holds together. Costs a heck of a lot less than surgery.

Good stuff

People who are involved in personal development of any kind do exactly these things. When it first starts, they recognize that they are powerless over their limitations.

This does not mean that there is nothing that can be done about the thing that they want to change. It simply means that, as things stand right now, they don’t have the necessary knowledge or ability to make the change that they want to.

But there’s always hope.

Whatever limitation you are currently powerless over, it’s always possible to find the necessary power if you follow the directions of those that have done what you want to do.

SLD gave me power over my appetite. There was suddenly something that could be done that worked.

But that is the quote that made me provide a link to http://creatingabetterlife.net/

I feel so judged and so judged. At the same time, I can’t help that and whatever I think is only that, it’s what I think. It may or may not be true. One the most moving parts of this meeting, was hearing the story of a really strong Israeli woman who has been through so much.

From http://muslimahinprogress.wordpress.com/

There is no quick fix.

From http://recoveredbulimic.wordpress.com/2008/04/19/normal-eating/ "I am so grateful that I survived those days as a young woman struggling in New York City — a walking toothpick, bingeing and vomiting incessantly, sometimes even vomiting blood, depressed and alone, paranoid and afraid, having blackouts and hearing voices as I walked to work. I wanted to live, but I had lost hope and was waiting for death. Instead, I recovered."

My definition of humanity – of being a human being – of the human condition – is that we all have something. Behind our masks, underneath our strategically chosen clothing and in the shadows of our carefully selected words, we all struggle.

From http://serafina00.vox.com/

Good stuff.

OA Blog Links

I'll comment on these later, but wanted to put them up:

http://humantermination.blogspot.com/2008/05/over-eaters-anonymousno.html

http://blameful.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/one-more-day/

http://recoveredbulimic.wordpress.com/2008/04/25/the-blessings-of-bulimia/

http://www.balancedlifecenter.com/298-surrender-powerlessness-and-other-bad-words/

http://overeater.podbean.com/2008/04/27/friday-night-live-is-on-the-air/

http://cherishedmisery.blogspot.com/2008/04/snot-anyone.html

http://overactivefork.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/avoiding-food/

http://weightloss.homeofimprovement.com/where-to-get-obesity-help/

http://sandeek.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/abstinent-recipe-of-the-week-bacon-jicama-melt/

http://phcblog.com/haroldprince1700/2008/04/21/struggling-issues-for-your-teens/

http://serafina00.vox.com/library/post/our-invitation-to-you.html

http://recoveredbulimic.wordpress.com/2008/04/19/normal-eating/

http://muslimahinprogress.wordpress.com/2008/04/18/balance/

http://creatingabetterlife.net/2008/03/24/powerlessness-hacking-the-12-steps-of-alcoholics-anonymous/

Why doctors hate fat people

Perhaps I've put it wrong. It should be, why doctors really, really, really hate fat people.

It seems stupid. Any doctor with half a brain knows that diets don't work. The studies are clear. But, medical professionals can't help themselves from seeing that:

• half of all health problems are "voluntary" (caused by either fat or cigarettes).
• fat makes everything, everything, a doctor does more difficult in ways that they don't get to charge extra for.

Doctors think fat people are stealing from them (forget the monopoly of the AMA, the price fixing and the raw greed and harm to the public health that doctors have engaged in historically).

Nurses just know that fat people are career enders -- more nurses end up with career ending injuries from treating fat people than any other cause.

But next time you think your doctor is hostile to you because you are fat, you aren't reading anything into things. Doctors hate fat people, irrationally so, to the extent that all they do is prescribe diets that make the situation worse (crash diets and rebounding will make you gain weight), surgery that has a history of failing and exercise programs that will make you eat more as your body adjusts.

They do all these stupid things because they hate you so much they can't think straight and honestly do something about the issues.

Which is why the SLD was invented by a PhD and not an MD. And why doctors are pushing expensive programs that don't work for fat people instead of the SLD that does. They hate you and want money from you, rather than want to help your health.

Read Good Calories, Bad Calories (read here and here) and ask yourself if the doctors are really that dense or if they are intentionally pushing a diet they know makes the situation worse. Which one makes them more money?