Not to sound like a nutjob sporting a tin foil beanie, but I strongly feel there is a quiet corporate conspiracy to keep the low carb revolution suppressed.

The government and health orgs (like the AHA) are irrationally closed minded to the possibility that, in absence of excessive carbohydrate, natural fats pose no health risk at all. This despite LC pioneers like Robert Atkins presenting evidence from his private practice to the contrary. Ask yourself: why?

We are constantly fed propaganda about the "struggling" refined carbohydrate industry. "Poor bread maker goes out of business: atkins drives down profits" the headline will boldly state. Were we ever told to shed a tear for the dairy farmers when LF came into fashion? If anything, media painted a negative association between emotions and high fat food manufacturers. Why is this?

When Atkins is discussed in mainstream press venues, it seems that most of the focus is not on the beneficial properties of the diet (that it painlessly allows you to lose weight by naturally regulating appetite, that many many people experience marked health increase), but the focus is instead on how "restrictive" it is (can't guzzle sugars anymore) or how high the fat content is (and we ALL know fat will kill you *sarcasm*.)

I mean sure there are new low carb products popping up here and there, made by a few enterprising companies. But in general, the establishment attitude towards low carb is that it is a "fad", it is "unhealthy", it is "unsafe", and it is "unpleasant". The truth is the exact opposite, not only is it more healthy, safe, and pleasant than the way the average american eats, but traditionally recommended diets as well. Oh, and low carb is far from a fad. Fads are something that come into fashion because everyone is doing it, but then they quickly go out of fashion when people realize they have been duped. The difference between a fad and a revolution, is that the revolution actually has some substance behind its momentum. The fact is LC diets are the way nature intended us to eat, science had it all wrong primarily blaming fats instead of sugars for our health ills, and more importantly: it works.

I do believe there is a quiet conspiracy among the food and drug companies and their bought politicians to keep the revolution suppressed. They worked so hard to bring high sugar into fashion, they aren't about to let that future extra profit potential go out the window now. Fact of the matter is, sugar is a) cheap, and b) stimulates appetite. Both of these equal increased profits for processed food companies. The pharmaceutical companies have vested interest in keeping low carb suppressed, as they deal in disease treatment. They are not in the business of disease prevention (unless it can be "prevented" via a bought pill), or disease cures. High sugar diets ensure a steady flux of patients with heart disease and diabetes who need help "controlling" their diseases with all manner of meds.

No, I don't think it is some big x-files area 51 type deal, but I do think somewhere, sometime, there is/was talk of how low carb is going to affect their profit margins, and they came to the conclusion that it needs to be suppressed. That is why you have corporate propaganda disseminated from a biased media (media is dependent on advertisement revenue). All our societal organizations are also dependent on corporate revenue, such as the USDA (department of agriculture has an OBVIOUS vested interest in the suppression of low carb).

Because there is just too much money wrapped up in keeping the high carb train going full speed, I don't think living a low carb lifestyle will ever be as convenient as living a low fat lifestyle. I don't think it will ever be accepted with open arms as the diet of preference by the establishment, because of this... the carbohydrate conspiracy.

Read some of the articles about hte new food pyramid that's perposed. Apperently when the origional food pyramid was designe,d it was done so behind closed doors with lobbyists form the different industries.

Also research agraculture. Yes there are some small farms and bread makers still left. Many are turning to organic or another gimmic though, why? Because big industry and goverment is who is producing most of the food these days. The little guys we're suposed to be pitying are being shoved out of business by large corperations that can mass produce cheaper.

Speaking of the Food Pyramid.....don't they teach this in the school system? Fats low- carbs high...When are we going to break the vicious circle?? It seems to me the low-fat way of life is being taught to our children with our tax dollars....hummmmm..........

Check into what school lunches can get away with and be approved still

Pizza bars, as long as there is 1 slice of pepperoni. Cookies, muffins and candies for meals.

My son goes to head start where they have USDA approved meals. They do good with getting fruits in, and occasional veggies. there is alot of juice, muffins, cereals, and for treats there can be cake, poptarts, cookies, or a second muffin.

In all fairness they did lose thier cook so the director was filling in for a while. It still depresses me though what can be considered healthy meals. High school lunches get even worse, and vending machines with junk food abound. Then they make the kids sit in desks with no breaks (In some grade schools they are even stopping recess as it takes away from learning) and wonder why so many seem to have attention problems.

If you want to get into really long detailed discussions or rants, check out the LC parents forum on here

lol, there was an article almost exactly word for word to that effect today on AOL. saying how Atkins and the South Beach Diet are hurting bakeries by driving down profits. Then on the speak out link its pretty much just people saying how bad the Atkins plan is for you


http://money.cnn.com/2003/11/24/pf/...risis/index.htm

I think ItsTheWooo makes some very good points, and many times I've been grateful that eating this way mostly requires plain food that has yet to be removed from the supermarket (though I'm sure they have thought of it.)
I started eating low fat in the mid-late eighties, when low fat was hard to find in the supermarket. Weight Watcher packaged foods were about my best bet, since that's how they cut calories/points.
But within a couple of years the low fat thing exploded, probably because a lot of other people started eating this way too, and there was a market.
I think the same thing is already happening with low carb. Good or bad, business in this country is market driven. If a lot of people get it into their heads that they want to wear t-shirts with glittery sayings, someone else will make it for them to buy.
(Wait, that already happened...it was the seventies...)
Yes, a lot of people are dissing low carb, but on the part of a great many doctors & nutritionists, I think it's not conscious (I'm going to make more money by steering people towards sugar) as it is unconscious (they aren't thinking) because they have spent so long staking their professional lives and careers on low fat.
Science is full of stories of scientists who did not change their minds and grasp the new paradigms until years after they were accepted practice. Low carb is going to be the same way.

Sadly, I guess it comes down to the root of all evil...money. If health was really a priority, all these crap filled foods could be made with healthier ingredients. Society wants convenience so...It's such a tangled web. That's why I make sure I prepare the majority of foods my family consumes. It's not perfect but a heck of a lot better than it could be.
*Fox shakes head and sighs...*

I agree with you, Woo. In fact, I believe there are some extremely deep conspiracies floating within our society, both politically and financially (and more often than not, intertwined).

Anything that has to do with BIG money will eventually lead back to a conspiracy of some sort. For instance, I've been hearing the rumor mill churn that nuts are now recommended to cut heart disease by the AHA, "if taken in moderation." Nuts were previously shunned because of their elevated saturated fat content. So, who greased the wheels to get this changed?

Some people would call me paranoid. I would call them naive.

Americans, through their corporations and politicians, are going to "cheapen" themselves out of house, income, and health. Perhaps we can call it "The W Syndrome" where W stands for Walmart.

On the news there was an subject on the food choices that kids make that are making them obese such as cookies, chips, soda, cereal...duh. They said that the kids were getting fat off of processed foods ( not carbs ). They did not mention that adults are fat for the same damn reason. Peter Jennings will have a special topic, "How to get Fat". I am not sure when it will be on.

On the news there was an subject on the food choices that kids make that are making them obese such as cookies, chips, soda, cereal...duh. They said that the kids were getting fat off of processed foods ( not carbs ). They did not mention that adults are fat for the same damn reason. Peter Jennings will have a special topic, "How to get Fat". I am not sure when it will be on.

Most of the margins in the food business are razor thin. The conquence of that is that even subtle changes in food buying habits can have a huge affect on profits. So, if change is underway, it will be swift and sure.

School Food is horrible nutritionally...When I first started school, we had real food for Breakfast. But, sometime during Elementary School, they changed over to Cereal...To add insult to injury...the cereals were: Trix, Fruit Loops. Lucky Charms, and Frosted Flakes. Maybe if they quit hopping the kids up on sugar, they'd have more luck getting them to pay attention and sit still in class...which would go alot further towards improving test scores than the crap Bush is pushing on the schools.

Let's not forget Lunch: Fried Meat [or Pizza, Spaghetti, or Taco] served with a side of Fried Potatoes [Tater Tots or French Fries,] a Fruit Juice Bar, and Low-Fat Milk. More Sugar [and Trans-Fat.] Then, if they're in an Afterschool program, they feed them even more Sugar.

Plus, to top it all off...at least in the upper grades, most are getting less physical activity during the school day. No more Dodgeball before school, Basketball after you finished lunch, etc...Nope, now they just arrive at school, are pumped full of Sugar, forced to sit in a seat while they are taught to the standardized test du jour, and in many cases, either go home to an empty home where they stuff themselves with junkfood [because they're hungry from the Blood Sugar crash caused by the Sugary crap they were fed at school] or they stay for an Afterschool program where they get sugar-laden snacks. The only meal they eat at home is Dinner, and even then, in some cases it is McDonalds.

Lots of Carbs + Restricting Physical Activity + Drugs (Ritalin) to Make them Cooperative is not a recipe for Healthy Children, it's how you fatten up Animals for eventual slaughter.

don't get me started on the food they serve at schools, it is terrible! The worst kind of sugary and refined carbs. I have never bought my food at school, low carbing or not! my sister is always bringing home junk though, like today she brought home what was left of a sugar cookie w/an 8" diameter, though more often its a slurpee type thing.

and have any of you heard of the huge overproduction of corn we have in the US? a couple weeks ago we had a guest speaker in one of my classes, Michael Pollan, who talked to us about corn overproduction, agribusiness, and how it affects our food supply. Corn (which is made into corn syrup, and fed to unwitting cows) is so cheap and plentiful, and food sellers have figured out, for example, that they can sell portions of chips twice as large for 50 cents more, for only a few cents extra cost to them. Besides the fact that corn is a very productive plant, the government subsidy (sp?) policies for corn changed a few decades ago, the new policy making corn more available by encouraging farmers to sell their crop regardless of how much surplus there is.

I'd never known why cows needed antibiotics before! The whole thing is fascinating, though very, very disturbing.

If health was really a priority people would also work on finding cures to diseases instead of ways to live longer and symptom free for the rest of your life as long as you take a pill or shot a day etc.

If there was something you can take to cure a disease and you only had to do/take it once as opposed to every day for the rest of your life, a lot less money is to be made.

Just blame the liberals lol (from an article in the research area about carb conspiracies)

Eating fat will never be seen as healthy by the mainstream since fat is fat people are fat people dont want to be fat how do you not be fat dont eat fat fat makes people fat mentality.

It fats were called something else then there would be a better shot but as long as people hear the word fat they will automatically associate fat with being fat and it will take a whole lot for people to take it seriously.

Especially with the stigma attached to Atkins where we eat no carbs and veggies are bad for you. Hell I know that before I picked up the book and learned for myself what I knew of atkins was the bacon and eggs diet and you dont eat veggies and I thought that was asinine.

A lot more work will need to be done till LC is ever accepted and I dont think it ever will be the way we would like.

But we shall see.

To add on to something Dollygrrl said: I do believe US agriculture produces an abundance of corn. I think we have an abundance of the refined products because we have an excess of the raw ingredients. We have to do something with the stuff. So why not make these items the base of the food pyramid and encourage people to eat them up? I read an article to this effect somewhere -- it may have been on mercola.com.