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Originally Posted by atlee
Of course, I see the same ascetic streak in many low-carb dieters as well, in their attitudes toward dairy, nuts, frankenfoods, artificial sweeteners, and even eating over 20g per day.
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This is so true. I'm surprised sometimes at the animosity toward these foods, which for some of us mean the difference between succeeding with low-carb and dropping out. If I couldn't have dairy, nuts, artificial sweeteners, etc., I doubt I would stick to this WOE. If it's KISS or nothing, I'd probably give up and stay fat.
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I'd like to be able to think of food purely as fuel, and evaluate my eating choices based purely on their effectiveness at keeping me healthy and meeting my energy needs instead of using them as variables in some big moral calculus.
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I would add: I'd also like to be able to think of food as one of the most reliable, ready pleasures in life -- there is nothing wrong with eating something for the sheer enjoyment of it. (Preferably something low-carb, of course.)
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...sometimes it seems like we've got a national obsession with the virtues and vices of food and weight management issues, and I find it disturbing.
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Yes! I got into a grumpy little discussion on another board with some folks who were railing against vanilla extract that had
"EVIL" corn syrup in it. I pointed out that a teaspoon of vanilla extract with "evil" corn syrup adds about
half a gram of carb to a recipe--and that in my homemade ice cream recipes, I probably get more carbs from the
egg yolks than from the 2 teaspoons of vanilla! But a couple of people replied and basically told me that they chose not to defile their bodies with any amount of corn syrup. As if there's something malevolent about those corn syrup molecules... 1 gram's worth in a quart of ice cream. (If these folks want something to worry about, why not the 12 grams of carb in the 2 cups of whipping cream?)
For a long time I avoided the LC boards and hung out at a foodie board because I wanted to see posts that glorified food instead of demonizing it (or praising it with such backhanded compliments as "sinfully good"!). Lately I've recommitted myself to LC, and I'm trying to just avoid threads that bug me. This one caught my eye--I thought your post was really articulate and wise. I think the best thing to do as a low-carber is take a fresh look at what food is for (whichever way you define that) and try not to fall into the old habits of turning each bite into a moral issue.
What was it Dana Carpender said--something along the lines of:
OK, you ate some sugar, but that doesn't mean you're bad. If you ate the neighbor's baby, you were bad. If you just ate a donut, you were unwise. There's a difference.